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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26578021">Fallout 3 - Beautiful Stranger</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jan_Karlsson/pseuds/Jan_Karlsson'>Jan_Karlsson</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3, Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Brotherhood of Steel - Freeform, Capital Wasteland, Gen, Ghouls, Megaton, Pip-Boy, Raiders, Super Mutants, Vault 101, vault-tec, vaults</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 11:48:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>95,213</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26578021</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jan_Karlsson/pseuds/Jan_Karlsson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Lone wanderer succeeded in bringing fresh water to the Capital Wasteland. And vanished.</p><p>Now, a new vault dweller has emerged, with no memory of who she is or where she came from. Her only clues lie locked within the Pip-Boy surgically attached to her arm and an urge to seek out the answers deep in the D.C. ruins.</p><p>But a new threat has emerged and the Beautiful Stranger finds herself on a collision course with something more dangerous than anyone can imagine.</p><p>A FanFiction set within the Fallout 3 universe.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Friendships - Relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>65</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>1</p><p>“War. War never changes.</p><p>From the dawn of time, to the apocalypse that devastated the world in the latter half of the twenty-first century, it’s all the same. Wars fought over competing ideals, for land or resources, or even over petty grievances, it’s all the same.</p><p>People, young people, die under the orders of those sitting safe at home. At least, that’s how it was until flames erupted from the skies.</p><p>The methods may change. The places, the weapons, the factions and the nations, but it always amounted to the same thing. Death.</p><p>What if it could change? What if we could stop war? Maybe not all of them. Maybe not for long, but what if we could make a difference? Just once. What if we could stop the death and destruction? Just once.</p><p>That’s where you come in, my friend. That’s your job.</p><p>We don’t want to lay everything on your shoulders, but we don’t have the time. We wish we didn’t have to send you out there alone, but we have to. Because we no longer have the patients.”</p><p>-+-</p><p>The light felt painful. Even with closed eyes, she could feel the searing heat of it, pricking at eyeballs that rolled and moved around in sockets that felt like a metric tonne of sand had lodged there, grinding away the precious, viscous flesh. She didn’t want to open her eyes. Didn’t want to expose them to the sun’s heartless rays. Didn’t want to wake from the dream that had been repeating, repeating, repeating.</p><p>Her hand moved, of its own volition, to cover her eyes and the pain, however brief, subsided. Still she didn’t open her eyes, testing her body. Curling her toes in her boots. Flexing her fingers. She wondered why her left arm felt so heavy. Why, every time she moved it, she felt a tingle, a rush of something chemical and electrical running up and down her forearm?</p><p>“Well, looks like somebody is finally waking up.” A woman’s voice that, at first, sounded like an out-of-tune radio, squawking in some strange electronic dialect, then became more clear and human. “I could have sworn you were a goner there, for a while. Now, you just take your time, Patience. There’s no rush. Here, have a drink.”</p><p>Sour tasting plastic was pressed to her lips and she realised how dry and flaked they were. Tepid water dribbled onto those dry lips and she drank. It tasted filthy, but it also tasted like life. She couldn’t have appreciated it more if it had come straight from a cool mountain spring. The water and the plastic detached from her lips and she found herself leaning upward, wanting more. Needing it.</p><p>“Ah, ah, ah. Not too much there, Patience. Don’t want you throwing up in this fine dwelling we have here.” The sound of plastic moving against plastic as a cap was returned to a bottle. “You’d been out in the sun too long, girl. Near dried into a husk by the time I found you. Damn if you wouldn’t have left a beautiful corpse, though!”</p><p>“Where ...” It was little more than a croak. A cracked, feeble attempt to talk not helped by cactus needle scratching attacking her throat. She tried to cough. “Where?”</p><p>She pushed herself up by the elbows and tried to sit. An explosion of colours, a swirling maelstrom and a jackhammer put paid to that idea. Slumping onto her back once more, she tried opening her eyes, shaded by her arm. Blurred, distorted, inflamed, like looking at the bottom of a pool with a thousand watt arc lamp thrust in her face. She saw nothing.</p><p>“I found you just about half-a-mile back, just lying on the ground. Thought you were dead. I was gonna steal everything you had. Til you grabbed me.” The bottle cap unscrewed again and more water dripped into her mouth. “I tell you, Patience, almost dead and you still near broke my wrist. You are one strong lady. Pretty, too.”</p><p>“Why ... why do you keep calling me ‘Patience’?” It still felt like a porcupine was trying to climb out of her throat, but she could, at least, manage a few words.</p><p>“Well, I figured that was your name. You kept mumbling it while you were out. ‘Patience’, ‘Patience’, ‘Patience’.” The voice seemed to move away and then return. “It is your name, right?”</p><p>“No. It wasn’t ‘Patience’, it was ‘patients’. From my dream.” It was funny. That dream had been clear as day a second ago and now it seemed like a dream of a dream.</p><p>“If Patience isn’t your name, what do I call you?”</p><p>“My name is ... is ...” It was a struggle. She could feel a name, her name, dancing out of reach, spinning a waltz with other memories behind a wall of impenetrable glass. Seen, felt, but imprisoned from her. Separated. “I can’t remember. I can’t remember anything.”</p><p>She tried opening her eyes again, forcing herself through the pain and discomfort. Flickering eyelids like an old movie projector letting light through in a ditter-ditter-ditter of images. She screwed her eyes closed and tried again. Ignoring pain, and jackhammers, cacti spines and exploding rainbows, pushing past maelstroms and porcupines, she forced her eyes open. Struggled to sit up.</p><p>“If your name isn’t Patience, but you can’t remember your name, I figure I’ll just keep calling you Patience until you do remember.” The woman was coming into focus now. A toothy smile being the clearest image.</p><p>Patience reached out and found a wall with her hand. Or was it a wall? She squinted. It wasn’t a wall, it was a sand coloured boulder. In fact, they seemed to be sheltered within the gap between several boulders, a rusted, corrugated sheet of tin draped as a haphazard roof. Stumbling, she meandered to the gap between the boulders and looked out.</p><p>It was a horror.</p><p>A wasteland of ash grey, sand scoured rocks and lifeless husks of trees. Scrub bushes and fingers of grass were few and far between. The sky, a hazy, sickly yellow, darkening to a mucous green. A billboard, half-burned, half-discoloured, washed out, peeling, proclaimed ‘A giant leap for Nuka-Cola. A Quantum leap!’ and, in front of the billboard, a line of cars. Abandoned, rusted and sand-blasted. Rotting hulks of a decadent society, now dust.</p><p>“Where the hell am I?” She collapsed to her knees, hands falling to the ground, gripping the colourless, sterile dirt.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“This. Is. Three. Dog!</p><p>Another beautiful day dawns in the Capital Wasteland, brothers and sisters. Another beautiful day! The sun is shining, the water, the clean water, is flowing, thanks to that mysterious Lone Wanderer, and it is finally getting out there. You, yes, you can partake of the sweetest of sweet tastes, coming to a settlement near you.</p><p>Speaking of the Lone Wanderer. No-one has heard from our hero in a long time. Have they died? Have they moved on to pastures new? Have they been abducted by aliens? Who knows?</p><p>If you’re out there, friend, that old wagon wheel, Lady D.C. could use your help one more time.</p><p>It seems the Super mutants are organising. Word on the streets, and by the streets, i mean the through short wave radio, is they have a new leader and that leader has a plan for world domination!</p><p>Nothing like aiming high!</p><p>So, if you see our old friend from Vault one-oh-one, tell them we could use a helping hand. Or, maybe, some other hero could rise up from the ashes?</p><p>Because the good old Capital Wasteland could sure use a hero right now.</p><p>This is Three-Dog coming at you from deep in downtown D.C. and here’s a little Pat Boone mellowing the mellow for all you uptight folks out there.”</p><p>-+-</p><p>She could see the woman, now. Dishevelled, wearing a big coat covered with pockets, rips and tears repaired with untidy stitching, cloth flapping. She wore an old football helmet, the grill bent and dangling, attached by only one spur. She couldn’t determine how old she was, weather or age had caused her flesh to wrinkle and sag, browned by the unforgiving sun. Despite that, she had a friendly face. Laugh lines and crows feet betraying a humorous nature.</p><p>The mattress looked like it had seen its fair share of dirt and oil and, what looked like blood. She wanted to sit down again, but balked at using the thing she had been laying upon only moments before. Even though, if she was going to catch anything, it was, in all likelihood, too late.</p><p>“What happened here? Where am I?” It was the same question she had already asked. Words in different places, but the same.</p><p>“Heh. You Vault Dwellers! Hide away in your metal caves and come up here hoping the world is all roses again.” The woman chuckled.</p><p>“Vault Dwellers?” It wasn’t a term she remembered.</p><p>“People like you, Honey. I’ve seen one myself.” The woman pointed at her left arm. “Had one of those Pip-Boy things, same as you. Wore a fancy blue jumpsuit, same as you. Came from a Vault, same as you. They didn’t have a shiny new sidearm like you, though, just a dirty old shotgun.”</p><p>She lifted her arm and looked at the device attached to it. This was the thing that had made her arm feel heavy. A bracer, thick, with plastic and metal attachments and a small screen that showed nothing. She didn’t want to switch it on. She didn’t want to wear it, either, but it seemed to be locked in place. The gun the woman mentioned was in a holster on her hip. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed it before. She didn’t touch that. Didn’t want to. Yet.</p><p>As she looked at the device, she also saw the arm of the jumpsuit the woman had mentioned. Bright blue, with brown leather accents, it was made from some strange material, a tight weave that gave it a pattern not unlike a shark’s skin.</p><p>“You still haven’t answered my question.” Looking out between the boulders, she felt sadness weigh heavy upon her. “How did this ... all of this devastation happen to this place, whatever this place is?”</p><p>“War happened, Patience! War devastated it all. Here. Everywhere.” The woman seemed to find it amusing. “Damn near two hundred years ago. Death from above. Didn’t they tell you anything in your Vault?”</p><p>“I don’t remember.” She slumped to the ground, rubbing her forehead. “I don’t remember a Vault, I don’t remember my name, or how I got here. I don’t remember anything!”</p><p>“You just relax. I’m sure it’ll all come back eventually.” The woman had pulled out a stick with some kind of meat attached to it, from one of her many pockets, and chewed, thoughts seeming to run through her head. “That Pip-Boy thing has a screen. Maybe it’s got a holo tape in it? Might tell you something?”</p><p>She lifted her arm and examined the device, turning it to look it over. There was a switch on the side and, with a slight hesitation, she flicked it on. The screen remained blank for a second before starting to light up with a green glow. She could feel a slight hum from the device even as she watched random looking characters flicker on the screen and then the words “Vault-Tec Pip-Boy ... Loading. Stand by.” appeared.</p><p>The words “Stand by” pulsed in a slow rhythm but nothing else happened. She was about to switch it off when the device beeped and something resembling a map appeared on the screen. A list of options could be seen at the top of the screen; “Status”, “VATS”, “Data”, “Map” and “Radio”.</p><p>Two dials on the device seemed to control horizontal and vertical movements on the screen and she tried to move between the options, only to be met by a message appearing. “Locked - Incorrect Location.” All except for the “Radio” option that had “Galaxy Radio” listed. She didn’t switch on the radio.</p><p>“It’s not working!” She slapped the screen, but it made no difference.</p><p>“I know a certain someone who might be able to fix it. A real wizard with gadgets and gizmos.” The woman finished the meat on the stick and replaced the stick in her pocket. “She might even fix it for free. She’s strange like that. Likes helping people. I don’t know how she keeps that store running, throwing away good Caps by helping people.”</p><p>“Who is she? Where can I find her?” She was interested now.</p><p>“Woman by the name of Moira. Runs a store up in Megaton.” The woman adjusted her football helmet.</p><p>“Can you show me?” She was eager, now, to unlock the secrets in the Pip-Boy device. She needed to answer questions about herself and the Pip-Boy might have them. Or, at least, some of them.</p><p>“Sure. You can’t see because of the rocks, but if you head north-east ...”</p><p>“No, I mean, can you take me?” She saw the woman squint, thinking.</p><p>“It’ll cost you. Saving a life is one thing. Leading you all the way to Megaton? Now that’s a different matter.” The woman waved her hand in a dismissive fashion. “I doubt you have any Caps. It don’t look like that Pip-Boy is coming off your arm any time soon and I don’t take kindly to guns. I tell you what, we find you some new clothes, you give me that fancy jumpsuit, we’ll call it even. What do you say, Patience?”</p><p>“Deal.” She had no connection to the jumpsuit. It was just clothing. She needed answers more than an outfit. It seemed like a good deal to her.</p><p>The woman spat in her hand and held it out. This was something the Vault Dweller, Patience as she seemed to be called now, did remember. She spat in her own hand, clasped the woman’s and made a vigorous handshake. The deal was settled.</p><p>“The name’s Valrie, by the way. I thought I’d tell you, seeing as you didn’t seem to give a shit.” Valrie pulled another stick of meat from a coat pocket and offered it to Patience. “Squirrel-on-a-stick?”</p><p>Patience shrugged and took the stick. She was, after all, quite hungry. At least Valrie hadn’t charged her for it. Yet.</p><p>-+-</p><p>It was a wasteland, that was for certain. Patience (she didn’t know if she could ever get used to that name, but it was all she had until she remembered her real one), couldn’t believe the world she found herself in. A scorched and battered waste that had never recovered from the nuclear holocaust from two hundred years before. At least, if she believed Valrie. She had no other information that could dispute that.</p><p>In her mind, she had a vague recollection of a vibrant land. One filled with towering cities that almost touched the sky, of verdant woodlands and sweeping grasslands. Of birds circling in bright blue skies. People. So many people, flitting between those glittering cities in gleaming, fusion powered cars. Luxurious domiciles on wheels that were the homes of those people for the journeys, short and long, between place ‘A’ and place ‘B’.</p><p>Now, here, there was nothing but cold, sterile rocks. Dirt brown bushes without a single sign of life. There were no birds in the sky. Not a single one. She realised, after some time, that there were no sounds. No chorus of bird song, that constant tinkling noise that few people had ever paid any attention to. The distant thrum of cars on freeways, another ambient sound that no longer reached her ears.</p><p>It was dead. The whole world, as far as she could see and hear, dead.</p><p>“Before we go on to Megaton, I just have to make a little stop.” Valrie called over her shoulder as she picked her way over the rough, boulder strewn ground. “Got a friend over at Girdershade. She’s as mad as a bag of mole rats, but she’s friendly. She hasn’t had a good time of it, of late, and I got something might cheer her up.”</p><p>“As long as you get me to this ‘Megaton’ place. It’s not as if I’m on a time limit.” Patience found herself eager to get to the destination as soon as possible, but she couldn’t think of any particular reason to rush.</p><p>“Time don’t mean much in the Capital Wasteland, Honey.” Valrie circled a large boulder. “There’s daytime and there’s nighttime. Not much need for any other kind of time.”</p><p>It surprised Patience how spry Valrie seemed. Like a goat on a mountain, she skipped and jumped, picked her way, set her feet with care and moved with a surprising grace and speed, never seeming to tire.</p><p>Following Valrie around the boulder, she caught her first sight of the civilisation that once was and it laid heavy on her heart. In the distance, a clear vision of a once magnificent elevated section of freeway, now collapsed. Sections still standing almost as intact as they had always stood, other sections leaning in precarious ways against uprights and hills. Still other sections fallen to the ground in ruin. These freeways had once been a prime example of the greatness and ingenuity of the nation, now only a distorted echo of the past.</p><p>She leaned against the boulder, her head scraping against the grit of the surface. She couldn’t remember the past, only vague flashes, a gut feeling of what had once been. The world of man had brought itself low. So low that she doubted it would ever reach such heights ever again. Not if the world was still like this after two hundred years.</p><p>“How did it come to this, Valrie? Why did they let it get this bad?” She almost whispered that. Unable to fight to give the question any energy.</p><p>“Told you. Nukula bombs dropped on us. Dropped on us, them, everybody.” Valrie skipped back to Patience, adjusting her helmet on the way.</p><p>“Nuclear.” Patience made an absentminded correction. “Nuclear bombs.”</p><p>“That’s what I said, nukula.” Reaching in her pocket, Valrie pulled out a battered pack of cigarettes and a lighter. She lit one and took a deep draw, savouring it then releasing it through her nose. “Anyways, after Alaska was taken back from those Red Knees bastards, they didn’t take kindly to it. Returned to Shiana and threw them there nukula bombs at us, so we threw ours right back at them.”</p><p>“Red Knees? Shiana?” Patience furrowed her forehead, trying to work out what Valrie was talking about. “You mean Red Chinese and China?”</p><p>“That’s what I said, Red Knees and Shiana! Who’s telling this god damn story anyway?” She picked a piece of tobacco from her mouth and spat before taking another long draw from the cigarette. “But there’s them that reckon they didn’t use, whatchacall, normal nukula bombs. See after fifty years, hundred at most, things should have started getting back to how it was. Trees, plants, animals coming back. Radiation should have started clearing up. But it didn’t. Never did.”</p><p>“Damned fools. Nukes weren’t bad enough. They had to make them worse.” She almost felt like retching.</p><p>“Are you going to stand here all day, shitting yourself about shit that happened two hundred years ago?” Valrie wasn’t angry. She said it in an as matter-of-fact a way as she could. “Can’t change shit that’s already happened. You just gotta do the best you can with what you got. Stories about dead dumbasses and worrying about it won’t help nothing.”</p><p>She had a way with words did this woman of the Wasteland, that was for certain. And Valrie was right. There was no point to feeling gut punched about things that happened so long ago. She didn’t even remember the day before, let alone a year, ten years or two hundred years before.</p><p>If she could, somehow, regain her memories she could take the time to mourn those things she may, or may not, have lost. Right now, she only needed to find a solution for that and one of the steps to that solution was following Valrie. At least, for now.</p><p>-+-</p><p>The landscape didn’t get any less rough as they travelled towards the place Valrie had called ‘Girdershade’. She didn’t know what to expect. She couldn’t see any signs of habitation anywhere. At least, none that she thought could be liveable.</p><p>That was until they passed around a small hill and she saw one building, almost intact, a little distance to the east. It looked like a square building with, from what she could see, something akin to Art Deco stylings. She tried to catch Valrie’s attention.</p><p>“What’s that place?” She pointed to the building. Valrie looked once then, with clear intent, looked away, her face crumpling into a scowl.</p><p>“That’s a bad place. Bad ju-ju.” Valrie made it clear she didn’t want to even look at the structure. “The Dunwich Building. If there’s evil in this world, and I’m damned sure there is, that shit-hole has more than its fair share.”</p><p>“Buildings can’t be evil. People are evil. Things are just things.” She scoffed at the idea of a building being evil.</p><p>“Is that right, missy?” Turning around, Valrie gave Patience an intense stare. “Then you go right ahead and see. And, if you come out alive, which ain’t likely, I guaran-damn-tee you’ll come out with white hair, not that steel grey you got now.”</p><p>Patience touched her hair with an absentminded hand. She didn’t even know what colour her hair was, or considered that she had any at all. She pulled a strand before her eyes. It was, indeed, grey. Steel grey as Valrie had said. She didn’t know if she had coloured it that way, or if it was natural. Was she old?</p><p>Valrie spoke to her as if she were older than Patience, that was for certain. She didn’t know if that was only the way Valrie spoke, or if she was younger than the helmeted woman. She wasn’t even certain how old Valrie was, or if she had only aged premature due to her environment.</p><p>Regardless, Valrie had continued scrambling over the rocks, heading north in as straight a line as Patience could tell. She gave another glance at the Dunwich Building. She figured it wasn’t the best idea to explore the ruin, even if she didn’t have other places to go. It was unlikely that the building would hold the answers she needed. The sight of an intact building had distracted her, nothing more.</p><p>“How old are you, Valrie?” She followed Valrie, navigating loose rocks with ease.</p><p>“Me?” Valrie whistled through her teeth as she seemed to make some difficult calculations. “I don’t rightly know. Never counted. Forty or fifty, I’d say. Could be more, could be less.”</p><p>“And me? How old do you think I am?” She stopped as Valrie turned and took a good long look, her eyes moving from the soles of her boots to the top of her head.</p><p>“Well, your skin don’t look like it’s ever seen much sunlight but I’d call you pretty, beautiful, even, if you don’t mind me saying. You work out some, or, leastways, you did. You got some big muscles on that body of yours. You got boobs, so you ain’t a child, but you ain’t that tall neither.” Valrie clicked her tongue a few times as she tried to work it out. “I’d say in your twenties, mid to late. If you didn’t have your hair all tied up, you might look younger, I guess.”</p><p>Valrie shrugged her shoulders, adjusted her helmet, and continued heading north. It didn’t make much difference, knowing how old she was, but it was something, anything about herself that could be real. Something she didn’t need to remember because it was right there. An actual, honest-to-goodness fact that she could cling to. To give her a sense of self.</p><p>They soon came upon what looked like a campsite. A number of tables and benches scattered around and a derelict camper trailer were the only signs of what the place might once have been. There were bones, too. Scavengers had scattered most of the bones around. Some were still intact, including one was once a child. Patience squatted beside the child’s skeleton and held back a choked tear.</p><p>Two hundred years these bones had been here. Caught in the waves of flame and radiation, seeming to have been unaware of the conflagration that had overtook them, killing them where they had stood or sat. She didn’t know if it would have been worse to die in those flames, as these people had, or to have lived and suffered the horrors that came after.</p><p>“We’ve not got far to go. I’d like to get there before night falls.” Valrie spat as she looked around, keeping a practiced eye on their surroundings. “Bad shit comes out at night.”</p><p>She took one last look at the child’s skeleton before rising and following Valrie once more. The older woman seemed to pick up the pace as the soon continued its lazy arc in the sky, heading towards the horizon, sending glittering beams of light through the haze of the ravaged air.</p><p>After about an hour, as Patience calculated, they found themselves close to a section of the elevated freeway that Patience had spotted earlier that day. Valrie had stopped, staring at the foot of one of the huge supports like a rabbit watching a dog in the distance.</p><p>Patience could see, now, what Girdershade was. A ramshackle collection of huts made from, what seemed like, anything that could be useful. Wood, corrugated iron, old doors, plastic sheets and chain-link fencing all came together to make some limited living spaces. It wasn’t what Patience had been expecting. Not that she knew what she had expected, anyway.</p><p>“Something’s not right.” Valrie rocked from one foot to the other. It was clear she was ready to run, if she needed to.</p><p>“Like what?” Patience could see only one person, a female, moving within the rough compound.</p><p>“Like the brahmin is dead. Sierra would never kill that thing, it’s like a goddamn pet to her.” Valrie had pointed to an enclosure to the right where a creature lay on its side. Something like a cow, the creature had two heads. It had no fur, only raw, red flesh and it was dead. That was for certain. Valrie pointed to the person outside a hut. “And I don’t know that son of a bitch from anyone.”</p><p>“Maybe they’re just visiting, like you?” Patience remained crouched, though, not trusting herself to be right.</p><p>“Doubt it.” Valrie spat at the ground in anger. “What we got here is mother-fucking raiders.”</p><p>Patience found her hand had slipped to the grip of the gun at her hip. She looked at her hand and then at the gun. She had no idea whether she knew how to use the gun or not. Even if she did, she wasn’t sure she was able to shoot well, if at all. All she knew was that Valrie seemed determined to see if her friend was okay. And, without knowing anyone else in the world, Patience could see she may have to do what she could to help.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>2</p><p>Before she realised what she was doing, Patience began moving towards the collection of huts. Valrie made a half-hearted attempt to stop her, but she shrugged away the outstretched hand.</p><p>Slipping between rocks, shallow dips and low hills of the landscape, she circled around to the rear  of ramshackle buildings. She felt no fear, no excitement. She didn’t even know why she was doing this. All she knew was the urgent sense of impending violence that she felt upon seeing the armed woman outside the huts.</p><p>She couldn’t explain it. The woman Valrie had mentioned, Sierra, meant nothing to her. She even considered that these ‘raiders’ were only visiting the woman, but something told her different. Something, somewhere deep in her fractured memory, told her that this was a bad situation and she found herself moving towards danger. It almost felt like she had no control in her actions.</p><p>With cautious steps, she closed the distance between herself and the female raider. She could see the raider, now, dressed in battered brown leather clothing. A strapless top, hugging her breasts, with one shoulder pad of the same leather. Tight pants, studded with small spikes on the thighs and a hip holster with some kind of revolver attached to a loose slung belt. On her head, the raider wore a kind of helmet with attached googles and two antenna-like protuberances on top. The raider looked odd, to say the least. She also carried an assault rifle, held pointing upwards on her shoulder.</p><p>Patience waited for the raider to turn her back, in her lazy pacing, and moved. Silent, crouching, she stepped up to the woman’s back. Before the raider knew she was there, Patience threw her arm around the raider’s throat, clenching her tight against her own chest, linking her hand with her other arm and laying that arm’s hand on the back of the raider’s head. She pushed with that hand and pulled with her other arm, choking the raider in silence.</p><p>She kept the hold tight until long after the raider stopped kicking and struggling. Hands that scrambled, clutched and scratched against the arm at her throat began to lose strength, falling to the side. The body fell limp and heavy and still Patience held the raider locked in the choke, giving the raider no chance to recover. No chance to live.</p><p>When she felt certain the raider was dead, Patience lowered the body to the ground, dragging the body to the side of the hut, out of sight.</p><p>She moved, then, to the door of the hut the female raider had been guarding. She made no sound and even she found that surprising. With care, she laid her head against the door and listened.</p><p>“Come on, Sierra! I know you got caps! I know it!” A male voice and sounds of things tossed around. A radio and music playing in the background. “I’m a nice guy. I don’t like hurting ladies. Unless they deserve it. Tell me where the caps are and we’ll leave. No-one gets their pretty face smashed in, okay?”</p><p>“I don’t have any.” A female voice, now. Mumbling. Soft. “I spent my last caps yesterday.”</p><p>“Now that’s a lie. That’s bullshit.” The sound of glass breaking against a wall followed by a short scream and a whimper. “Now I gotta hurt you to make a point.”</p><p>That sense of danger told Patience she had to move and she had to move now. Without thinking, she pulled her sidearm from its holster and, pointing the weapon with one hand, she yanked open the door with the other. She stepped through the door, sweeping the muzzle of the gun until she latched on to the face of the man whose voice she had heard.</p><p>He was quick. As soon as the door opened, he pulled the woman, Sierra, close and tight, covering himself with her body, using her as a shield and pointing a gun from under Sierra’s arm. Patience was quick, too. Without thinking, she switched the gun to her left hand, crouched and covered most of her body with the door and wall. She didn’t even know if she could shoot, let alone left-handed.</p><p>“Well, well, well. What do we have here?” The raider was clever, able to hide much of the normal targets on his body by the frame of Sierra. “Friend of sweet Sierra, or someone out to steal my action? How’d you get past Baby-Doll?”</p><p>“The woman outside? Leather armour, weird fucking hat?” Patience kept her pistol aimed, unblinking. “She’s dead. I choked the shit out of her.”</p><p>“Damn. That’s a crying fucking shame.” He didn’t sound the least bit upset. “It seems to me, we have ourselves an impasse. Now, I know I’m going to shoot you if you don’t let me leave. You and pretty little Sierra here. Sure, I could get dinged, but I reckon I’ll get you worse than you get me. So, it stands to reason that we both get out of this alive and without any hurtful injuries, am I right?”</p><p>“Wrong.” Her unblinking eyes used the raider’s monologue to seek out a viable target. His mistake came when Sierra shifted the tiniest amount to the left, exposing his knee.</p><p>Her first shot rang out, filling the cabin with the supersonic clap of the bullet and the explosive concussion of the gunpowder, ringing her ears. The bullet tore through the raider’s kneecap and out the other side, carrying along blood, bone and flesh to splatter and hit the wall behind.</p><p>His knee destroyed, the raider collapsed to the right, losing his grip upon Sierra, reaching out with his gun hand to arrest his fall and exposing his chest and head.</p><p>Somehow, in the blink of an eye, Patience had risen, stepped through the door, swapped the gun back into her right hand and had fired two more bullets. The first slammed into the raider’s chest, sending a gout of blood splashing against the wall. The second penetrated the raider’s eye, burying itself deep into his skull, obliterating his brain.</p><p>Before his body even hit the floor, Patience had grabbed Sierra, pushing the shocked woman behind her, guiding her to the door, all without taking her eye from her opponent for even a fraction of a second. She continued pointing the gun at the dead raider until she felt satisfied that he was, indeed, dead.</p><p>In a movement that seemed well oiled and practiced, she straightened to her full height and replaced her weapon to its holster.</p><p>“Jebus aitch Christ!” It was Valrie’s shocked voice that she heard.</p><p>“You mean Jesus.” It was an automatic correction. It didn’t even seem as if she was doing the talking.</p><p>“That’s what I said, Jebus.” Valrie stepped into Patience’s line of vision and it was like a spell had broken. Patience shook her head. “You’re a god damned one woman killing machine. God damn!”</p><p>Patience looked down at the body of the raider. Three precise shots, hitting three exact targets. It would seem that she did, indeed, know how to shoot. She only wished she knew how she knew.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Sierra sat on her bed in the single room shack, not seeming upset. Only numb and distant. Patience didn’t know if the woman was in shock, or if this was how she acted in normal circumstances. It was certain that the blood on the walls and the dead body of the raider didn’t seem to affect her one way or the other.</p><p>Patience looked around the shack, filled to brimming with Nuka-Cola merchandise of all kinds. Two different bottle dispensers, advertising sheets, various shapes of bottles, empty and full, scattered on shelves, cupboards and tables. Even a giant, human sized, bottle listing sideways in a corner.</p><p>Valrie had disappeared out of the shack, muttering something about not wasting anything, leaving only Patience and Sierra in an uncomfortable silence. Patience stood in the centre of the room, examining the memorabilia and avoiding looking at the dead body. She considered dragging it outside as Valrie returned, her hands full with the clothing and weapons of the female raider.</p><p>“Now, let’s have a look here.” She dropped everything where she stood apart from the strapless leather top, and held it up against Patience’s chest. “That should fit.”</p><p>She thrust the top onto Patience’s chest and bent over to pick up the matching leather pants. Patience caught the top before it fell to the floor and looked at it, bemused. Valrie then held the pants against Patience’s legs, cocking her head to the side, raising an eyebrow.</p><p>“What are you doing?” She held up the strapless top and smelled it. The smell of leather and sweat wafted under her nose. “Did you just leave the raider naked?”</p><p>“Damn right. She’s not going to need any of it.” Valrie seemed satisfied with the pants. “Strip.”</p><p>“Here?” Patience looked towards Sierra, but the woman showed no signs of caring.</p><p>“Where else? We made a deal. I get that jumpsuit when we find you new clothes. Here’s the clothes. Strip.” Valrie adjusted her helmet, but didn’t look away.</p><p>Patience had to admit, a deal was a deal. Tugging at the zipper, she started shrugging out of the jumpsuit. She struggled getting the sleeve over the Pip-Boy, but the material stretched enough to tug over it and then returned to its natural shape as the sleeve slipped off. Likewise, she pulled the legs over her boots, then remembered she’d have to take off the boots to pull on the tight leather pants.</p><p>The leather raider ensemble felt a little snug, but, apart from that, fitted quite well. The pants were a little too long, but she tucked them into her boots after putting them back on. From one of her many pockets, Valrie pulled out a pair of scissors, snipping the straps from her bra, tossing the pieces onto a nearby table.</p><p>“There. You won’t stand out so much now and I got me a shiny jumpsuit.” She picked up the jumpsuit, turning it from front to back, and clicked her tongue. “Now, I’m no expert, but isn’t there supposed to be a number on the back? Of the Vault you came from? I never noticed before. That’ll knock some caps off the price, dammit.”</p><p>Patience shrugged. She had no idea if a number should be there or not. Instead, she crouched down and began examining the other things Valrie had brought in. The revolver was nothing special, a snub .38. Useful, but not the best of weapons. The assault rifle was different. 5.56, crude construction, metal folding stock. She’d almost consider it homemade, but for a faded serial number etched into it. She popped the magazine, checked the ammo and pressed it back into the slot. She found a couple of spare mags in a belt pouch and clicked the RoF switch to ‘semi’. There weren’t enough rounds for full auto.</p><p>“How far to Megaton from here?” She stood up, attaching the belt, and ammo pouch, around her waist, alongside the belt that held her weapon and holster.</p><p>“Hold your damned horses!” Valrie had crouched in front of Sierra, holding the other woman’s hand. “It’s getting dark, anyways. We’re best holding out here til the morning.”</p><p>“Alright. I’ll take the raider outside.” She reached down and grabbed the collar of the dead man. She found it a surprise that she lifted him with such ease, holding the rifle in the other hand.</p><p>It was, indeed, getting dark. Without the usual fog of street lights making the immediate air hazy, she could see stars popping into view as the sun’s light faded beyond the horizon. She didn’t, in truth, remember the street lights. It was more of a memory of a memory. The sight of a galaxy of stars appearing in the sky was downright beautiful, she thought.</p><p>Dumping the raider’s body next to his naked, also dead, companion, she crouched down and searched the man. She found a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, still working, and lit one, sucking in the bitter smoke as she rifled through the man’s clothes. She found a bag of bottle caps in a tie bag and tossed them aside. Behind his back, she found a sharp knife in a sheath and transferred it to the rear of her belt. Two empty ammo pouches on his belt soon became detached and added to her own belt.</p><p>She was about to leave the body when she noticed a strap, attached to his belt, looping over his shoulder. It seemed to only be there for show, but it gave her an idea. She unfastened the strap, tugging it from beneath him, and tied the strap to a ‘D’ loop on the rifle.</p><p>Slipping the strap over her head and shoulder, she practiced with the attachment. Hefting the rifle, aiming, palming it down, slipping her hand down to her sidearm, pulling it up to bear, replacing it, lifting the rifle again. It seemed that she had been well drilled. Every movement simple, bare, fluid. Had she been a soldier?</p><p>She checked the safety again before reentering the shack. That had been, she hesitated to count, one of several times she had done that. She was nervous. Wired. She didn’t know why. All she could think was that she didn’t feel alone out here. That eyes in the waste were watching. Many pairs of eyes.</p><p>She shivered, pulling open the door, allowing light from inside to cascade outwards. Valrie was right. Bad things came out in the night.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“Hey you! Yeah, you!</p><p>I have an important message just for you.</p><p>You, that huddle around your radios, holding back the dark.</p><p>You, passing by catching this message on your way somewhere else.</p><p>You, hoping the music will lull you to that deep, deep sleep and the dreams where everything is better.</p><p>This message is for you all.</p><p>You’re doing great.</p><p>The water may be flowing. The Enclave may be reeling in chaos. The slavers may have been crushed. But there is still danger out there. There are still obstacles to be breached. Still people to be stopped and people to be saved. The Good Fight still needs fighting.</p><p>But you, yeah, you, you’re doing great.</p><p>This is Three Dog wishing you a good, safe night and the sweetest of dreams.”</p><p>-+-</p><p>She found Valrie pottering about in the hut, searching for something. The other woman, Sierra, still sat on the bed, staring into space. The radio played in the background, a musical accompaniment to the starkness of the coming night. Patience regarded Sierra for a second before shrugging the makeshift lanyard from around her neck and placing the rifle on a nearby table.</p><p>“Sierra. You’ve got a million bottles of Nuka-Cola and not one damned bottle of alcohol.” Valrie shifted things around, lifting faded advertising sheets and complimentary tote bags. “Or am I missing something.”</p><p>“Under the counter, by the door.” It was a mumbled response. “Fermented Nuka-hol I made for Ronald. He’s gone now.”</p><p>Patience sat in a chair, repaired with strips from a Nuka-Cola packing crate, watching the exchange. She didn’t mind waiting until the morning. The eerie feeling from outside still remained and she didn’t relish travelling outdoors at night until she knew of what the dangers consisted. Having no memory, or, at least, little memory that she could make sense of, frustrated her, but staying alive took far greater precedence.</p><p>Valrie found the Nuka-Hol bottles, collected three branded Nuka-Cola shot glasses and poured drinks for the three of them. Sierra was the first to drink, knocking the alcohol back without hesitation. Valrie lifted an eyebrow and refilled the glass.</p><p>“Sierra, honey, why are you still out here alone?” A drink and a refill and Valrie sat beside Sierra on the bed. “You’re going to get yourself killed. Why not up and move to Megaton, where it’s safe?”</p><p>“Ronald could come back. He protected me. He’s a good friend.” Sierra seemed to look straight through Valrie. “He headed off to find bottles of Quantum for me. He’s only a little delayed. He’ll come back soon.”</p><p>Patience raised a questioning eyebrow to Valrie who returned an almost imperceptible shake of the head. She had no idea what had happened to this woman, but it seemed, whatever it was had affected her more than a little. Something more than the raider attack. She wondered if this ‘Ronald’ meant more to her than only as a friend, but, at the end of the day, it didn’t matter that much. Valrie was right. Living here, alone, was a recipe for disaster.</p><p>“Oh, I almost forgot, Sierra. I have something for you.” Valrie rummaged inside her coat, filing through her many pockets, no doubt, and pulled out two bottles. They appeared similar to all the other Nuka-Cola bottles, but these two had a faint, luminescent blue glow to them. “Nuka-Cola Quantum. I scavenged them from a place down south, right before I found our new friend here.”</p><p>“Oh. They’re lovely. Ronald left to find some of these for me, you know?” There seemed no excitement in her words, but Sierra clutched the bottles to her chest like newborn babies. “Did you know the first recipe for Nuka-Cola Quantum involved a different isotope to give it its unique, patented and highly carcinogenic glow? They changed the isotope to one that was far less unhealthy.”</p><p>“That’s interesting, honey. Now, why don’t you lay your head down, get some sleep, and you can give us the grand tour in the morning? What do you say?” With great care and gentleness, Valrie eased Sierra to a lying position on the bed, pulling a threadbare blanket over her, tucking it under her chin. She still clung to the two bottles.</p><p>“That will be fun. Ronald might be back by the morning too. We can eat some of my Nuka-Cola brownies together.” Sierra’s words quietened and drifted into silence. She fell asleep in seconds.</p><p>Patience took out the pack of cigarettes, lit one and offered the pack to Valrie. Her new companion slumped into the only other chair in the shack, taking a cigarette and drawing in a big lungful of smoke as Patience lit it for her. She turned, picked up the bottle of Nuka-Hol from beside the bed and refilled their shot glasses.</p><p>“This Ronald? Dead?” Patience kept her voice low, not wanting to further disturb the sleeping Sierra. Valrie nodded in silence, slamming back the shot and filling the glass again. “How long?”</p><p>“Long time. Months.” Valrie lifted the shot glass swilling the contents with gentle easy swishes. “I’ve been coming back, hoping she’d recover, become more like she was, but I can’t see it happening. All I can do is try to get her to move somewhere safe.”</p><p>“Seems he was more than a friend to her.” Patience sipped at the Nuka-Hol, followed by a draw on her cigarette, letting the smoke cascade down her throat, chasing the drink. “If she doesn’t get out of here, or find someone else to protect her, she’s going to die. Those raiders knew her, they came here because they knew she was alone.”</p><p>“You think I don’t know that?” Valrie gave Patience an annoyed look. She didn’t like the cold, matter-of-fact way that Patience had talked.</p><p>They heard a bump and a scrape against the outside of the shack’s walls. Patience had the assault rifle in her hand before she realised she was reacting, sweeping the muzzle around in all directions. There came several more bumps, several more scrapes and Patience tracked the noises with the rifle.</p><p>“You might as well relax. That shit’ll be happening all night. It’s just scavengers.” Valrie threw her cigarette butt on the floor and crushed it cold with her boot.</p><p>“How do you know?” She didn’t drop the rifle straight away.</p><p>“The real bad ones don’t knock.” The older woman saluted with the shot glass and winked before downing the contents.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>3</p><p>Come the dawn and Patience found Sierra scrubbing the raider’s blood from the wall of the shack. Using a brush with few bristles, the woman didn’t seem to notice that Patience had awoken, moving the brush around in furious circles.</p><p>“Ronald will have a fright if he sees this.” She mumbled to herself, blowing her hair from her face from the corner of her mouth. “And then I have to make sure the exhibits are in order. So much to do. So much to do.”</p><p>Patience pitied the young woman. It was clear that she was no longer in a rational state. Not knowing if it was because of the loss of her friend or from the trauma of the day before, Patience felt in a quandary. If she stayed here alone, she wouldn’t last long. The raiders knew she was alone, that was why they had invaded her home. If one set of raiders knew, it was probable that others did too.</p><p>“Your friend, Ronald. He’s dead. He’s not coming back.” She crouched beside Sierra, stopping her scrubbing. It was harsh to say it like this, but the woman needed to hear it. “If you don’t leave this place, you’ll end up dead too.”</p><p>“Ronald went looking for Nuka-Cola Quantum for me.” Distant eyes bored into Patience’s own eyes. “He’ll be back before long.”</p><p>“He’s dead! Understand? Dead!” She tried to stop herself snapping at the poor woman, but she couldn’t help herself.</p><p>“It’s no use. I’ve told her so many times.” Valrie reentered the shack, closing the door behind her. “Trust me, her head’s gone. Maybe she’ll snap out of it one day. I hope I can get her to move East. Tried forcing her once, but she just up and ran back here first chance she got.”</p><p>“We should take her with us. Drag her, tie her, if we have to.” She saw Valrie shake her head.</p><p>“Bodies are gone. The brahmin’s been eaten.” Valrie changed the subject and tossed the bag of bottle caps, that Patience had found on the body of the raider, on the table. “You missed these. Must be thirty, forty caps in there.”</p><p>“I didn’t think they were worth anything.” It was clear the subject of taking Sierra with them was now closed.</p><p>“Not worth anything? Everything’s worth something! You can’t buy things without caps.” Valrie tipped out the contents of the bag and began counting.</p><p>“These are what you use for money?” Patience picked up a cap, turning it over, examining the faded symbol printed upon it.</p><p>“What else are we going to use?” She lost count, sighing, and started again. “Out west, I heard they use paper. Paper! Hell, I could write on a piece of paper and try to buy things. I’d get laughed out of town, but I could try.”</p><p>Patience dropped the bottle cap back on the table, much to the consternation of Valrie, who started her count once again. Looping the strap of the rifle over her head and shoulder, she looked at Sierra once more, still scrubbing at blood that she had already cleaned away. Picking up the snub .38, she crouched once more beside the woman lost in her own mind.</p><p>“Here. In case you need it. Just pull the hammer back and pull the trigger. It’s easy. Shoot first, worry about who you’re shooting at later.” She took Sierra’s hand and pressed the .38 into her palm. Sierra looked at the gun, not seeming to understand what it was. “Just ... just in case. Okay?”</p><p>“I could get twenty caps for that and you’re just giving it away.” The football helmet wobbled as she shook her head.</p><p>“She needs it more than we do.” Standing, she watched Valrie finish counting the bottle caps, squirrelling the pouch away in one of her myriad pockets. “So, where next?”</p><p>“I already radioed ahead to my place.” She pointed towards a battered short wave radio, hidden under detritus, in the corner. “Don’t worry, it’s on the way. I’m not leading you on a wild Bloat Fly chase.”</p><p>“Didn’t say you were.” Despite her fresh received new name, she found she didn’t hold much patience after all.</p><p>There was little she could do about it, though. She was, for now, a stranger in a strange land until such time as her memory returned. Valrie seemed honest enough and she had saved her life. There seemed little point for the woman to betray her. Patience had no belongings of value, other than her pistol and Valrie could have taken that at any time while she was unconscious.</p><p>Patience’s gut instinct was that she could trust Valrie. At least for the moment. And, as Valrie crouched down beside Sierra, brushing the poor woman’s hair from her face and smiling with a hint of sadness, Patience could see a kindness to the woman. The sort of kindness that Patience expected was rare among the dog-eat-dog world she now found herself in.</p><p>Valrie kissed Sierra on the forehead and smoothed her hair one more time before standing up.</p><p>“I’ll be back in a few days, honey. Stay safe, you hear?” Valrie’s smile faded as Sierra returned to her scrubbing, saying nothing. Sighing, she turned for the door, only stopping to bend over and grab a bottle of Nuka-Hol from under the counter. She saw Patience’s silent question. “She won’t mind. And besides, I doubt she’d notice it’s gone. Or us, for that matter.”</p><p>Patience followed Valrie out into the discoloured haze of sunlight. Valrie turned east but, before setting off, she cocked her head to the side and turned back to Patience, lifting the arm with the Pip-Boy on it. Patience watched as the woman scrolled through the options, clicking on ‘Radio’, scrolling down and selecting a station. Music crackled and scratched from the gadget on Patience’s arm.</p><p>“Radio works, if nothing else.” Adjusting her helmet, rolling her shoulders, Valrie winked as she turned east and started walking.</p><p>Patience couldn’t help but laugh at the woman. Resting an arm on the assault rifle, slung diagonal across her chest, she followed Valrie, walking in parallel with the broken down freeway, heading towards the sun rising over the horizon. A nauseating yellow, broken and wavering in the filthy air.</p><p>-+-</p><p>The going was difficult, following the direction of the devastated freeway. Crossing broken ground, clambering over pieces of the roadway that appeared to have crashed down revealing the crushed stone concrete and twisted steel rebars that had, at one time, given strength to the construction. Each mile should have taken only twenty minutes, at most, at a steady pace, but now stretched into an hour or more.</p><p>Several times, Valrie stopped Patience, indicating they should hide and move with stealth in a short detour. She pointed at creatures, snuffling around in the dirt, digging, almost frantic. Hairless creatures with baggy skin and protruding teeth.</p><p>“Mole rats. Tenacious little shits. Killed easy, but why waste bullets?” Valrie explained, grimacing and spitting in the direction of the creatures.</p><p>A little further on, Valrie spat out a curse and forced a much wider detour.</p><p>“Goddamn Bloat Flies! Nasty fucking things.” Ducking, almost crawling from hiding place to hiding place, Valrie led the way past. “Those things’ll spit poison all over you, sting you and lay their eggs in you. In that order, if you’re lucky.”</p><p>Patience could feel her heart rate rising and falling at every encounter. She found herself carrying her rifle at the ready all the time now. Eyes in a constant search of their surroundings, checking every crevice, every stack of rocks, every broken and twisted vehicle.</p><p>“This place is a fucking nightmare!” She hissed a whisper to Valrie as they leaned against a rock avoiding more Mole Rats. “Is there anything that doesn’t want to kill you?”</p><p>“Nope. Everything living wants you dead. Everything not living is like to kill you in different ways.” Valrie adjusted her helmet and made a fast, furtive glance around the rock. “And this shit ain’t the worst. Yao Guai will rip you up and eat you, raiders’ll shoot you, rob you and maybe even fuck you. Dead or alive, male or female, don’t matter. Super Mutants will beat the shit out of you and try to turn you into one of them. Or just shoot you. And Deathclaws? Those fuckers are the worst of the lot of them.”</p><p>“Like I said, a fucking nightmare.” Patience wished that she hadn’t woken up in this world. She considered it might have been better if she’d died before Valrie found her. At least it would have been a merciful death. “How much further to your place?”</p><p>“Not far, but I’ve just seen something interesting.” Valrie grabbed Patience, leaning her around the rock and pointing down a slope to south-east. An old truck and trailer sat in the middle of the waste. A vehicle without a road. “That’s a raider hideout. Usually always has a spotter on the roof, but there’s not been any movement down there at all.”</p><p>“We can hide from the Mole Rats and Bloat Flies there?” Valrie was right, there wasn’t any movement near the truck.</p><p>“Hide? No. That’s an old military truck.” Valrie grinned as she prepared to make run for the truck. “Been wanting to scav that thing for years.”</p><p>“You damned, crazy old ...” Protests fell on deaf ears as Valrie took one last look and made a desperate run towards the truck. Patience took another look herself and then followed the older woman, chasing the flapping coat and bobbing helmet.</p><p>It was, indeed, an old army truck. The skeletal remains of the driver still sat in the cab, bony fingers still attached to the wheel. Valrie bypassed the cab, running to the rear, and made several quick glances around the back. Satisfied, she slipped around the edge, out of sight from Patience.</p><p>Patience took a more slow, methodical approach. Hefting her rifle, she used it to point at the places she examined. Sweeping the muzzle around, checking under the truck, their immediate surroundings. Moving around the back of the truck, she four-cornered the whole space, despite Valrie already rummaging inside the trailer. Something in Patience’s mind, something trained, told her to check everything herself, no matter what others were doing.</p><p>Inside the trailer looked like someone, or several someones, had suffered something terrible. Blood spray patterns covered the sides and the floor. Upon closer inspection, Patience could see numerous bullet holes in the trailer’s sides, sunlight coursing in thin bars through them. Whoever had died here had not stayed here. No bodies, not even pieces, anywhere in the trailer.</p><p>Valrie tossed something and Patience caught it without thinking. An old military back pack, dust covered but still intact.</p><p>“That rifle? 5.56 right?” Noting Patience’s nod, Valrie slapped four magazines to the side. She then pointed at Patience’s sidearm. “That nine mil’?”</p><p>“Yeah. I think.” To make sure, she drew the pistol, popped the magazine and looked before returning the mag back in the gun and the gun to the holster. “Yeah, nine mil’.”</p><p>“Those are yours.” Valrie dropped three cartridge boxes and two empty magazines next to the boxes, spreading her fingers above the lot to make her point. “Everything else is mine.”</p><p>Valrie had found another back pack and started squirrelling away everything she could find into it. More cartridge boxes, magazines, pieces of broken machinery, some kind of inhaler, two or three hand guns. Everything. Even a half-drunk bottle of whiskey got added to the bag, after a quick slug and a wiped mouth. She even stuffed in Patience’s jump suit, retrieved from wherever it was that she had managed to place it within her voluminous coat.</p><p>Patience, for her part, picked up the magazines, checking their condition and of the bullets inside. She stuffed them into her new pack, alongside the 9mm cartridge boxes and empty mags, and spun the pack onto her back, tightening the straps to keep the pack secure.</p><p>“Now, let’s get the fuck out of here before someone comes looking for these raiders and thinks we killed them.” Valrie slung her pack over one shoulder, stepped to the edge of the trailer and scanned their surroundings before jumping down. “Best hot foot to my place, Wintergreen’ll be having kittens if we don’t arrive soon.”</p><p>Patience dropped down from the trailer after Valrie and made another sweep of the area with the muzzle of her rifle. Seeing nothing, she relaxed a little, letting the rifle rest across her body, her finger remaining near the trigger guard. To be safe.</p><p>She only hoped they reached Valrie’s place soon. This constant feeling, the tense, on-edge feeling she had since waking up with Valrie beside her, was starting to take its toll. She could feel a headache coming on and she got the feeling that it wouldn’t get any better until she found somewhere to rest and relax. If such a place existed anymore.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“You're listening to the adventures of me, Herbert "Daring" Dashwood, and my stalwart ghoul manservant, Argyle. Today's episode: There Ain’t Nothing Like A Dame.”</p><p>“Well, Argyle, my most trusted friend, one more brandy before bed?”</p><p>“You know I don’t drink, boss.”</p><p>“You don’t know what you’re missing, old chum.”</p><p>“Hey, boss, we got company. Phew, and she’s a looker!”</p><p>“Mister Dashwood and ... friend. My name is Constance Dérobé and I need your help.”</p><p>“Let it never be said that I, Daring Dashwood, would ignore a damsel in distress. How may we help, madam?”</p><p>“My husband, Albert, is a doctor. A nukula scientist. He hasn’t returned from his lab in days and I’m worried something terrible has happened. Could you investigate for me. I would be very ... appreciative.”</p><p>“Nuclear. The word is nuclear.”</p><p>“Now, now, Argyle. The lady is married to a scientist. I’m sure she knows the correct words.”</p><p>“Whatever you say, boss.”</p><p>“Now, madam, we don’t normally take cases like this, but we’ll make an exception. For you. Where is your husband’s lab?”</p><p>“Someplace called Old Olney. I’m not sure why he worked there, though.”</p><p>“Old Olney! That’s Deathclaw territory!”</p><p>“I’m sure we’ll be fine. Better pack the big guns, though, just in case.”</p><p>“Not ... the Deva-Strafer?”</p><p>“The one and only! Worry not, madam, Daring Dashwood and his implacable companion, Argyle are on the case!”</p><p>“Jeez. One day a dame’ll be the death of us, boss.”</p><p>“But what a way to go, Argyle. What a way to go.”</p><p>“Be sure and tune in next time for another exciting adventure of me, Herbert “Daring” Dashwood and my stalwart ghoul manservant Argyle!”</p><p>-+-</p><p>Despite what Valrie said about the building being hers, the sign on the side proclaimed it as “Jocko’s Pop and Gas Stop”. A squat, square building that had, at one time, sold roadside nik-naks for people veering from the highway, it now had a hasty constructed side building made from various eclectic items. Not least of which appeared to be an advertising hoarding sawed, in a haphazard fashion, through the face of a cheery looking woman popping some kind of pill into her mouth.</p><p>“Wintergreen!” Valrie called as she reached the door, before pounding upon it without allowing whoever occupied the building time to answer. “Wintergreen! Open the damned door!”</p><p>Silence greeted them and Patience took the opportunity to perform quick glances around the corners of the building. Satisfied, she returned to Valrie as the older woman continued pounding on the door, which remained closed. Stoic and resolute.</p><p>“Nobody home?” She smiled as Valrie gave her a stern glance accompanied by a ‘tut’.</p><p>“No. He’s home. He’s just too damned old. Losing his hearing.” Valrie began repeated kicks against the door. “It’s Valrie. Open the god damned door, you piece of god damned shit!”</p><p>They soon found themselves greeted by the sound of several locks opening and bolts sliding back and, after a while, the door opened. A crack at first and then wider as a metal eye popped out, whirring and clicking as it looked at them both.</p><p>“Why, Miss Valrie, it is so good to see you again.” The door opened wide and a Mister Handy robot hovered into view. “Won’t you please come in?”</p><p>“Of course I’ll come in, you god damned rusted piece of shit. It’s my fucking place!” Wasting no time, Valrie brushed past the robot, into the building.</p><p>“And who is your lovely companion?” Wintergreen, the Mister Handy bot, hovered to the side allowing Patience to enter. “If I had known you would be bringing company, I would have set to places for dinner, Miss Valrie.”</p><p>“I did tell you! I radioed ahead last night, you dumb bucket of bolts!” Valrie had disappeared into another room, but her voice rang out clear and loud throughout the building. “My ‘companion’ is called Patience. Don’t bother remembering it, we won’t be staying long.”</p><p>Wintergreen spun around and extended a clawed ‘hand’.</p><p>“Welcome, Miss Patience. Will you be staying long?” Patience grasped the claw with a tentative hand and shook it. “May I take your coat and hat?”</p><p>“I don’t have a coat or hat.” She let the claw go and shimmied aside, navigating herself around the rusted, damaged and many times repaired robot.</p><p>“Would you like a coat or hat?” Wintergreen closed the door to the building and started turning the many locks and sliding the many bolts home. Only one of his three ‘eyes’ remained upon her, unblinking in its scrutiny. “We have refreshments, beverages, snacks and Schedule-1 drugs for your consumption.”</p><p>Patience ignored the strange robot and made a cursory examination of the room. It appeared to be the front shop area. Shelves, filled with a vast assortment of things, half of which she had no idea what they were. Old chest refrigerators, that might once have held ice cream or other products, filled to overloading with other items. Almost every space had something to fill it.</p><p>“What the hell are you waiting out there for?” Valrie’s voice echoed from the other room. “Come on in. Leave the damned robot out there. And don’t accept any offers of drugs from him!”</p><p>Patience took one last glance at the shop and another, wary, glance at the robot and passed through the door to join Valrie. Wintergreen hovered, almost in silence, save for his engine, watching her as she moved.</p><p>She found Valrie packing the weapons and ammunition, she had found, into a heavy, metal gun cabinet. Finished, she closed the cabinet door, locking it with several padlocks of various sizes. Stuffing the keys in a pocket, she took a swig from the half-empty bottle of whiskey she had found.</p><p>“That’s a strange robot you have there.” Patience looked over her shoulder to see one of Wintergreen’s eyes looking around the door frame. “It seems a little ...”</p><p>“Fucked up?” Valrie collapsed into a chair. She rummaged through several pockets and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, lighting two and holding out the other for Patience. “Found him wandering around out in the Wasteland. Moira fixed him up best she could, but he’s always been a bit ... wired. You know?”</p><p>“Yeah. I know.” She took a drag of the cigarette and looked over her shoulder again. The eye no longer watched her.</p><p>“Speaking of Moira, I radioed ahead and she’s expecting us tomorrow.” Valrie flicked ash into a nearby coffee mug. “She’s real excited about getting her hands on that Pip-Boy. For research. Moira’s a good kid. Never steals nothing from nobody.”</p><p>“So, we’re setting off now?” She found it ironic that the name Valrie called her was ‘Patience’. It appeared she had little of that virtue.</p><p>“Plenty of time for that. I reckon we should relax for tonight. Get some food inside us and some rest. Wintergreen!” She dropped the half-smoked cigarette into the coffee mug. “God damn it. Wintergreen! Make something to eat! Wintergreen!”</p><p>Patience rolled her eyes. From what Valrie had told her, Megaton wasn’t that far away but, by the time they arrived there, it would be three days since they set out.</p><p>Things seemed to move slow in the Capital Wasteland. Except when they didn’t.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>4</p><p>Waking and finding the Mr Handy robot, Wintergreen, hovering beside her, all three ‘eyes’ focused upon her, did nothing for her morning mood. She rolled from the makeshift bed, laid on the floor, and stopped herself from reaching for her pistol. The robot gave her chills.</p><p>“Breakfast shall be served in the parlour, Miss Prudence.” The robot backed away and returned to hovering at its normal height. “Formal dress is not a requirement. Would you care for orange juice, tea or coffee with your morning repast?”</p><p>“It’s Patience, not Prudence.” She found it strange that she had adapted to her new name so fast. “And coffee. Coffee will be fine.”</p><p>“Don’t listen to that damned fool robot.” Valrie entered, rubbing her hands with a rag. “All I have, breakfast wise, is Sugar Bombs. Got no tea, no coffee and no-one’s seen an orange in decades, let alone juiced one.”</p><p>Patience dressed, pulling on the snug leather pants and strapless leather top, wrapping her weapons belts around her waist. Pulling on her boots, it seemed like Wintergreen had a fascination with her. Bobbing around the room, the robot held one of its eyes on her at all times.</p><p>“I’d like to set out soon.” She stomped her feet on the floor, settling them in the boots. “You’re robot gives me the creeps.”</p><p>“He’s harmless enough.” With a half-smoked cigarette hanging limp from her lips, Valrie slipped on her coat-of-many-pockets and brought her football helmet down over her head. “He gets a little excited when I have company. I swear, the last time I had Jug-Eyed Jed over, the damn thing near watched us fucking! Jed ain’t been back since.”</p><p>That was far more information than Patience needed to know. She wandered into the kitchen area, finding the Sugar Bombs in a box on the counter. Without a bowl that she could see, she poured a pile into her hand and started eating. They were stale, soft, not crunchy, but it was better than nothing. She saw the a bottle of Nuka-Hol and took a swig, swilling it around her mouth before swallowing.</p><p>“Miss Valrie, will you and Miss Penelope be taking your morning constitutional?” Wintergreen hovered over to Patience, returning the Sugar Bombs box and the bottle of Nuka-Hol back into their original positions. Their exact positions.</p><p>“We’re going to Megaton, Wintergreen. I already told you!” Valrie picked up a couple of odd, random items and stuffing them in her pockets. “It’ll be a couple of days before I’m back.”</p><p>“Very well, Miss Valrie.” Wintergreen bobbed to the corner and lifted a broom, leaning against the wall. “I shall attend to my duties and await your imminent return. Good day to you, Miss Priscilla. It was a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”</p><p>“The pleasure’s all mine, I’m sure.” Patience watched as Wintergreen began sweeping the room, the bristles of the broom missing the floor by several inches, at least one of its ‘eyes’ never leaving Patience.</p><p>Upon leaving the building, Valrie waited until she heard every lock and bolt made secure before she started on the next leg of the journey. Patience switched on the radio on her Pip-Boy and they set off heading east. She could see, in the distance, that the neither the freeway nor the landscape improved, but she thought she could see the first signs of the place that was once known as Washington D.C..</p><p>There appeared to be far fewer instances of the creatures that they had seen the day before. Patience found herself glad of that, despite now having more ammunition to protect themselves if the need arose. She didn’t want to have fight to travel a few feet, only to have to fight something else to travel a little further.</p><p>She had no illusions about the Capital Wasteland. From the little of it she had experienced, she knew full well that this place wasn’t for the feint hearted. It was rough, untamed and dangerous. All she wanted was to find answers to the nagging questions her amnesia presented to her. It seemed unlikely that unlocking the Pip-Boy would magically solve all her problems, or answer all her questions, but it could be another step towards those goals.</p><p>She needed to know who she was, where she had come from. She needed to know why she had ended up unconscious in the middle of this wasteland, alone. She needed to know if she had family, friends and if they missed her. She could sum it all up in those four words; She needed to know.</p><p>While she mused about her circumstances, Valrie kept up a running commentary about their surroundings, pointing out a vehicle she had scavenged and almost got killed for, a power station that, somehow, still received and transmitted electricity. About mid-day, Valrie pointed to the south and Patience saw another building, almost complete and untouched by the devastation around it.</p><p>“Tenpenny Tower.” Valrie spat as she spoke of the place. “Full of the hoi polloi. People that think they’re better than everybody else. Or, at least, it was. Heard old Tenpenny took a dive from the penthouse a few months back. Could have been suicide, could have been murder. Seems no-one gave enough of a shit to find out for sure.”</p><p>“Sounds lovely.” Patience gave another look at the tower before following Valrie.</p><p>“Yeah. But that’s a fucking palace compared to the place we have to go through.” She pointed ahead where a collection of structures could about be almost seen. “We got to go through Fairfax to get to Megaton and, believe me, Fairfax is a whole different kind of shit-hole to deal with.”</p><p>That sounded a little too ominous for Patience. She made an absentminded check of her weapons, sliding out the clips to check the ammo, checking safeties, sights and actions. It sounded like Fairfax was going to be trouble. As if anywhere else in the Capital Wasteland wasn’t.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“Let me ask you, children. How many vaults are there in the Capital Wasteland? We all know about one-oh-one, where the hero, the Lone Wanderer emerged from, blinking, into the light and into our hearts, but how many more are there?</p><p>I know. The intrepid and infallible reporter that I am. But, it seems I was wrong. Plain wrong.</p><p>A report has come to me of another vault, a super-secret vault, one so secret, it doesn’t even have a number. And, I’ve been told, yet another hero has risen from that vault like an avenging angel, protecting the common man, or woman in this instance, from the ravages of raiders. Calling down great vengeance and furious anger upon those that prey upon the weak and lonesome.</p><p>A Beautiful Stranger. Mysterious and deadly.</p><p>So, it appears, the Good Fight now has a new warrior. A new player.</p><p>Here’s to you, Beautiful Stranger. Welcome to our strange, wondrous and violent land and I hope, one day, you’ll come visit old Three Dog and tell us your story.</p><p>For now, this is Three Dog, oooowwwww. Be good and if you can’t be good, be careful.”</p><p>-+-</p><p>Patience stared at the Pip-Boy on her arm, open mouthed. She then turned that stare towards Valrie as the older woman scrambled over a loose piece of battered freeway concrete.</p><p>“That was me!” Patience picked her way over the rubble, jumping with little effort from stone to stone. “The man on the radio. He was talking about me, wasn’t he?”</p><p>“I reckon so.” Valrie didn’t look around, shrugging as she moved.</p><p>“But, how does he know about me?” Her rifle whipped around, without her even thinking about it, pointing at some falling rubble. A loose, imbalanced piece of concrete had caused the rock fall, and she relaxed again.</p><p>“I might have radioed something in. In passing.” Stopping at the top of a mound of rubble, Valrie adjusted her helmet, staring ahead. “We don’t get much news around here. I figured people should know what you did for Sierra.”</p><p>“I don’t know how I feel about that.” Joining Valrie at the peak of the rubble, she looked towards the collection of buildings the older woman had called the Fairfax Ruins. “I’m not a hero. I just want answers. I’m not here to be anyone’s savior.”</p><p>“Try telling Sierra that.” Valrie turned to Patience, looking her dead in the eyes. “Sure as I’m stood here, that girl would have suffered, maybe even got killed, if it weren’t for you. You didn’t think about it, you just jumped in and killed fuckers that needed killing. Now if that don’t make you a Big Damned Hero, I don’t know what does.”</p><p>Valrie jumped down, spry for an older woman, and continued heading towards Fairfax. Patience waited a second, thinking about what Valrie had said. She had jumped in, without the slightest thought, to help the Nuka-Cola obsessed Sierra. She wondered if that was a throwback to who she had previously been before losing her memory?</p><p>She had an idea about some things. She seemed to know her way around weapons. Had definite skills when it came to stealth and hand-to-hand combat. She didn’t feel like a soldier, though, when instinct took over, she acted like one. She didn’t think of herself as a hero, couldn’t think that. As far as she felt concerned, she only wanted to stay alive, find out who she was and where she came from.</p><p>Valrie had turned southwards, continuing to follow the derelict freeway, but moving them away from where she had said they were heading.</p><p>“You’re going the wrong way.” Patience used her rifle to point across the land towards the ruins. “It’s quicker across than turning south.”</p><p>“I’m going the wrong way? Well, I’ll be good god damned! Let’s bow to your superior wisdom, shall we, missy?” Valrie snapped around, stomping back towards Patience. “So’s I don’t happen to know that there’s a big ass pool of radiation that way? I don’t know about no big packs of dogs just waiting to rip some dumb fucker’s face off? I mean, you know so fucking much, you go right ahead, but don’t come to me begging for Rad-Away when you’re fucking hair’s falling out and you start becoming all ghoul-ified, or wanting me to find you a new fucking face ‘cos some dog’s done run off with it between its fucking teeth! Go on. I ain’t stopping you.”</p><p>Patience backed away from the ferocious outburst. She’d seen Valrie annoyed, at Wintergreen, for instance, but this was out-and-out anger. Something must have triggered it and Patience felt certain there was more to it than the suggestion to head across the land. There was something there, deep in the eyes of Valrie as she stood there staring at Patience, daring her to question her choice again. Patience didn’t want to push the matter. Not right now.</p><p>“So, south, then?” She nodded in the southerly direction.</p><p>“Well. All-fucking-right.” Valrie made a dramatic meal of brushing down her coat and rubbed her nose with the back of her hand. “Let’s get going.”</p><p>As Valrie turned and moved away, Patience shook her head at her strange companion. She suppressed a grin at Valrie. In the mood she was in, it could make her explode even more.</p><p>“You swear a lot. I mean, a lot!” Patience continued to sweep the area as she walked and talked. “I’m not averse to a bit of cursing, myself, but you, you swear like a sailor on shore leave.”</p><p>“You don’t fucking say?” Valrie shoved her hands in her pockets, making long, deliberate strides to express her anger. “Maybe I should take on the mores and manners of a fine ass lady such as yourself?”</p><p>“God, no! I like you just the way you are. Cussing and everything.” She did laugh, this time. “It adds colour to a dark fucking world.”</p><p>“You’re damn right.” Valrie didn’t turn around, but her shoulders appeared to relax a little and she continued in a hushed mumble. “Fucking sailor on shore leave?”</p><p>Patience checked the sun. The day was fast turning into afternoon. The southern detour, if it followed how the previous part of the day’s journey had gone, would take them until mid-afternoon to reach Fairfax, leaving little daylight to go much further.</p><p>She wondered how far away Megaton could be. Valrie had said they expected to reach it today, but, other than the Fairfax Ruins, Patience couldn’t see any other habitation. She hoped they could reach Megaton before dark, though, and, if they were lucky, avoid the kind of creatures that Valrie had described.</p><p>However long it took, Valrie seemed to be there for the ride, no matter how annoyed she became.</p><p>-+-</p><p>The freeway continued south for a short distance before turning eastwards and then, a little further, northwards. It seemed a strange way of taking the journey, but after Valrie’s outburst and acknowledging the older woman had the better area knowhow, Patience felt comfortable taking the detour.</p><p>With the ruins of Fairfax in sight, they heard the first gun shots, followed soon after by an explosion. Patience took immediate cover, switching off the radio, training her rifle towards the sounds of battle. Valrie didn’t follow her lead. Instead, stood upon a mound of rubble, Valrie shielded her eyes to get a better look at what lay ahead.</p><p>“I can’t get a good look.” Digging into her capacious pockets, she pulled out one half of a pair of small binoculars, holding it up to her eye. “I can see movement, but there’s dust flying up everywhere.”</p><p>Valrie scrambled down the rubble and, in the most nonchalant fashion, turned north-eastwards and started walking, her back half-bowed as if that could hide her enough from whoever the battle was between. Patience followed, lowering her profile, walking crab-like while keeping her weapon covering the direction of the firefight.</p><p>“Shouldn’t. We see if anyone needs help?” She noticed the direction they moved in took them far to the side of the battle, heading for the outer edge of the ruins, to the east.</p><p>“Nope.” Valrie crouched fast as a couple of bullets zinged overhead. “And in case you’re wondering, ‘nope’ stands for ‘Not Our Problem, Esa!’.”</p><p>Patience dropped her back against a slab of upright concrete and peeked out between broken edges and strips of rebar. Another explosion buffeted the air and a large puff of dust erupted beyond one of the buildings. She could hear shouts and screams now.</p><p>“I’m going in for a look. You stay here.” She identified another piece of cover, an upturned car about twenty feet away and readied herself to move.</p><p>“I thought you weren’t no fucking hero?” Before Patience could answer, or stop her, Valrie trotted out of hiding, racing towards the car, holding her helmet down with one hand.</p><p>Patience thought about what Valrie said. She didn’t think she was a hero. Yet, her first instinct upon hearing the gunfire appeared to be to run towards it. ‘Maybe I’m not a hero’ she thought, ‘Maybe I’m just a fucking idiot.’</p><p>Running, head down, she followed Valrie, throwing herself against the car and turning, aiming her rifle, supporting it next to the deteriorated rubber tire. She saw movement and, reaching blind, grabbed the broken binoculars from Valrie, ignoring the yelp of protest.</p><p>The scratched and dull lenses made seeing through them difficult, but she caught sight of four combatants racing from the ruins, firing back the way the had come, random strafes of bullets in wide arcs. A stupid method. No tactics, only plain panic. From the looks of their outfits, similar to what she now wore and the other raider had worn, she made a guess that these people, two men, two women, were also raiders.</p><p>One of the men stopped, pulled something from his pocket and then, a second later threw it. A grenade. Before the grenade even reached the top of its arc, Patience heard a familiar, elongated zing. A high-velocity round. The back of the raider’s head flowered outwards sending brain, blood and pieces of scalp showering the air behind him. He fell, limp and quite dead, where he stood.</p><p>“Give me that! I can’t see a damned thing!” Valrie ripped the half-binoculars from Patience and looked towards the gunfight. “Damn! Look, there’s a snipet up there, on the roof.”</p><p>“Sniper. You mean a sniper?” Patience had ducked as another couple of bullets buzzed too close for comfort. After a second, she peeked again, searching the rooftops until she caught the flash of sunlight on telescopic sight.</p><p>“That’s what I said, a snipet.” A bullet pinged from the bodywork of the car, but that wasn’t what caused Valrie to dick down. That was a second or two later, her face ashen as she handed the broken binoculars back to Patience. “Holy fucking shit! Super Mutants.”</p><p>Patience whipped her head up, using the half-binoculars, and scoured the area of the battle. What she saw made her jaw drop. Creatures, humanoid creatures, followed the raider’s out of the ruins. Tall, most at least seven feet in height, or more, heavy muscled, with skin a sickly yellow, or vomit green. Each of them carried weapons and fanned out from the ruins, making a wide area of offence towards the raiders.</p><p>One seemed to be carrying some kind of missile launcher, brought it level and fired. A puff of exhaust smoke plumed behind it and the missile flew, beyond Patience’s ability to track. The explosion caught another of the raiders. One of the woman flew through the air, tossed aside by the explosion, her left leg and arm ripped from the body, flying in different directions. There was no way to survive that. And then the firing stopped.</p><p>The remaining two raiders had thrown down their weapons, surrendering. Patience couldn’t believe that these creatures, these ‘Super Mutants’, were the kind to accept surrender, but she saw them lower their weapons, sending one of their number towards the defeated raiders.</p><p>Upon reaching them, the Super Mutant loomed above them, glowering, breathing heavy, its shoulders rising and falling. It punched the remaining female raider, knocking her flat to the ground, then dropped a hammer blow of a fist on top of the male raider’s head, crumpling him to the dust. Then, it seemed, without any effort at all, picked both raiders up in its huge, shovel-like hands, carrying them back to the other Super Mutants.</p><p>Patience found herself so engrossed in the grotesque scene, she almost missed the tell-tale flashing of light hitting her eyes. Almost. She ducked back down behind the car, grabbing Valrie and pulling her down without the slightest care.</p><p>The sniper had targeted them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>5</p><p>“Back to the concrete! Now!” Patience flipped back up and fired two shots towards the sniper, hoping that Valrie had listened to her order. Three Super Mutants started lumbering towards her and a fourth began raising its missile launcher.</p><p>She ducked back down and took a couple of quick, deep breaths. Valrie had already skittered away, disappearing behind the concrete slab they had first hidden behind and Patience jumped up to follow. She sprinted, head down, and threw herself behind the concrete as the tell-tale whistle and whine of a missile approached.</p><p>The explosion shook and vibrated the air, making her ears ring and throb in pain. Debris clattered against the broken concrete and started falling around them. She had little time to worry about that. Valrie huddled behind the slab, arms over her head, gripping her football helmet, her eyes closed tight.</p><p>“God damn it! Your jump suit ain’t worth this!” The older woman yelled.</p><p>Patience ignored Valrie’s protests. Bringing herself back to her feet, she aimed the rifle through the broken gap in the concrete. Two more shots rang out, aimed at the first Super Mutant she saw. The first bullet pinged away, deflected by an old, large radiator it wore as body armour. The second bullet thudded into its chest, burying deep and causing a gout of thick, green blood to spout outwards. It didn’t even flinch.</p><p>Before ducking down again, she saw four other Super Mutants joining the fray. One, even bigger than the others. Over eight feet tall, its skin a thick, dark green. It carried what looked like a giant make-shift sword, held with one hand, casual and without any effort.</p><p>There wasn’t any other cover. At least, none that they could reach before getting cut down by gunfire, or finding another missile launched at them. She felt desperate, breathing heavy. She doubted that suppressing fire would work with these creatures, they didn’t seem to care if they got shot.</p><p>She flipped the RoF switch to ‘auto’. If she was going to die here, she would go down fighting. Closing her eyes, she leaned her head back against the cool face of the concrete slab, trying to control her breathing. She could feel Valrie almost trying to dig her way further into hiding. With one last breath, she prepared to come out shooting.</p><p>“Humans!” A deep, rumbling voice battered and bludgeoned its way through the air. “Come out. Now. You will not be killed.”</p><p>“Not killed. King say. King tell truth.” Another voice, not as deep as the first.</p><p>“I don’t need an echo!” The sound of something getting punched.</p><p>“Yes, King. Me am sorry, King.” The second voice became higher and contrite.</p><p>Patience felt confused. She looked towards Valrie who had a similar look of confusion upon her face.</p><p>“That don’t sound like no Super Mutant I ever heard.” Valrie started to lift her head to look through the hole in the concrete before Patience shoved her head back down.</p><p>“If you don’t come out now, you will certainly die.” The Super Mutant ‘King’ continued. Patience chanced a look and saw the King, its giant sword tip resting on the ground, its hands folded on the grip. “The worst that could happen if you surrender is that you become like us.”</p><p>Patience could feel her eyes move fast, from side to side, as she ran through her options. The Super Mutants outnumbered them. She had no idea what could kill these Super Mutants, or if she could kill them. It was possible that enough bullets could bring them down, but she had little amounts of ammunition as it was. It was also possible that a shot or two right into their brains could drop them, but she wouldn’t have the luxury of aiming before the others riddled her with bullets or blew her apart with a missile.</p><p>She considered surrendering and attempting escape later, but she had no idea where they Super Mutants would take them, whether they would find themselves tied up. If so, what with? There were too many unknown variables and the variables she did know made the situation as bleak as it could get. All she knew was that as long as she was alive, there was a chance. However slim.</p><p>She didn’t want to become like these brutish creatures and she didn’t want to die, that was for certain. Limited options. Limited possibilities. She took one last look at Valrie. The old woman shook her head. To say ‘no’? To say she didn’t know what to do? Patience couldn’t tell. She had to make a decision.</p><p>She removed the strap of her rifle and laid the weapon on the ground, then did the same with her sidearm. She raised her arms, stood up and stepped out from behind the concrete.</p><p>“And the other one.” The Super Mutant King crooked a finger, seeing Valrie’s face through the gap in the concrete. She shuffled out, hands raised high. “Now, isn’t this more civilised?”</p><p>A dirty wind whipped up from nowhere, lifting the sterile dust of the ground, dancing with the drifting smoke from the missile explosion. It whistled between Patience and Valrie, turning and twisting the air, blowing towards the Super-Mutant King. As the wind reached him, the King sniffed. The great, bony ridge of his brow creased and he sniffed again. He stepped back.</p><p>“Kneel for King!” One of the other Super-Mutants growled. It stepped forwards.</p><p>“No! Don’t touch them!” The King reached out to his subordinate, but it was too late. The Super-Mutant dropped a huge hand upon Patience’s shoulder, shoving her to her knees.</p><p>Within the blink of an eye, the King’s sword lifted, swept out and tore through the neck of the Super Mutant that had touched Patience. The head fell from the body, dropping at Valrie’s feet. A fountain of blood spurted from the remains of the creature’s neck, spattering over Valrie and Patience and the body crumpled to the floor.</p><p>“What the fuck!” Valrie began retching, at the smell, at the blood, at the decapitated head at her feet.</p><p>The Super Mutant King began backing away, staring at Patience and Valrie. A tense, unwavering stare. He ushered the other Super Mutants backwards and they obeyed, however confused they were with the order.</p><p>“You two,” The King pointed towards Valrie and Patience. “You stay away from Super Mutants. You come near my people, I’ll hit you with every missile I’ve got.”</p><p>With a few more backward steps, the King turned away and, with the other Super Mutants following, regardless of how confused they appeared, he started striding away, back to the Fairfax Ruins.</p><p>“What the fuck just happened?” Valrie shook her arms to toss away some of the Super Mutant blood and wiped her face with the sleeve of her coat. “I mean, what, the actual fuck, just happened?</p><p>“I have no fucking idea.” Patience mumbled to herself.</p><p>The wind played and teased with their clothing and hair. Changing direction and tossing the dry dust around like tiny little toys.</p><p>-+-</p><p>They moved in a wide circle around Fairfax Ruins. If the state of Valrie was anything to go by, Patience thought she must look like a mess. The Super Mutant blood, that covered them, now drying in the heat of the hazy sunlight.</p><p>No other Super Mutants came anywhere near them, though they could see them. Their hulking bodies moving within the desolate ruins of Fairfax. Once or twice, one of the creatures seemed to catch sight of them, but backed away, keeping their beady lifeless eyes upon them as they retreated behind walls.</p><p>“That’s not how those ass lickers work!” Valrie mumbled to herself once again. She had said the same thing several times now. “They kill you. They beat the living shit out of you. They don’t talk and they certainly don’t walk away!”</p><p>Patience couldn’t agree or disagree. This was, as far as she knew, the first time she’d ever encountered the giant creatures. From what she’d seen of them, however, she felt inclined to think that violence appeared to be their main attributes. Their leader, the King, did seem to be a fair bit different to the others.</p><p>“It’s done. We’re alive and they seem to be leaving us alone.” Patience caught sight of another Super Mutant, trying, and failing, to watch them from cover. Its huge frame making it difficult to show any kind of stealth. “Let’s just get to Megaton.”</p><p>“You don’t get it, vault girl!” Valrie stopped, turning on Patience. “They didn’t just talk! That King fella talked well. Like a human! And they’re organised. I’m no strategy person, not like you, but didn’t that seem tactical to you?”</p><p>Patience hadn’t thought about it, but there did seem to be a crude form of tactics to the creatures. Herding those raiders out into the open, using a sniper to take them out. The missile launcher held back and only firing when people used cover. The King accepting surrender.</p><p>“Terrible tactics, yes.” She took another look to where the Super Mutant had tried to hide and watch them. “Is this the best place to talk about it? We should move fast before they change their minds.”</p><p>Valrie threw up her hands and turned to continue walking. They soon left Fairfax behind, forging northwards and reconnecting with the freeway. The road, no longer elevated, gave better purchase at this point. It still had places where the structure had buckled and broken, large cracks and uplifted sections making minor obstacles, but much more flat than the previous sections.</p><p>At one point they found a large section packed with the rusted, buckled remains of vehicles, sitting bumper to bumper as if caught in an apocalyptic traffic jam. Skeletons were in most of the cars, as if waiting for the traffic to move. Remnants of shirts and ties, once colourful dresses and hats and bonnets adorned them, giving an eerie sense of stasis. A grim fragment of time. A snapshot of unforeseen disaster.</p><p>Valrie moved between the cars and the trucks, eyes scanning for anything worth taking. Packs of cigarettes, rings, watches and other jewellery found their way into her pockets. She tossed one pack of cigarettes to Patience and leaned against one of the cars, lighting one of her new finds. Patience joined her, lighting a cigarette of her own while keeping a constant eye on their surroundings.</p><p>“Relax. Megaton keeps this area mostly clear. ‘Cept for damned Mole Rats. Can’t seem to kill them quick enough.” She flicked ash from the burning end of the cigarette and drew in more smoke. “Megaton’s just over that rise. The folks there are pretty good people. Not too wary of strangers. But you need to keep your mouth shut about what happened in Fairfax.”</p><p>“You don’t think they should know about the danger, almost on their doorstep?” Patience tried to see if she could catch sight of Megaton, but she couldn’t see any buildings. Only the tip of what looked like a derelict scrapyard. “They should prepare, just in case those things come this way.”</p><p>“If we go in there, spouting about Super Mutants organising down the road a-ways, it’ll just start a panic.” The older woman took one last, long drag from the cigarette, her eyes rolling in satisfaction as the heated smoke trickled into her lungs, before flicking the butt away. “When we get in there, I’m going to try and contact the Brotherhood, they don’t like Super Mutants much, and let Three Dog know. He’ll know better than you or me what people should and shouldn’t know. He’s pretty smart, that radio guy.”</p><p>“The Brotherhood?” The name didn’t sound familiar to Patience.</p><p>“Of Steel. Armoured ass-holes from out west. They’re about the only ones who can go toe-to-toe with those big yellow bastards.” Valrie chanced a look into the car she leaned against. Spotting something in the back, she leaned in, pushing aside the skeleton of a child and emerged holding a  tin toy horse with articulated legs. It disappeared into her pockets. “Though, after their battles with the Enclave, I’m not sure how well they’re doing themselves, right now.”</p><p>Satisfied that Patience knew what, and what not, to say on entering Megaton, Valrie clapped her hands and shoved herself from the body of the car, turning to head towards the scrapyard off to the side of the freeway and just over the rise.</p><p>It was only after cresting the rise that Patience realised that what she thought had been the peak of a scrapyard was nothing of the sort.</p><p>Like an erratic bubble, the structure rose from the dirt. Made from such eclectic objects as the tail end of a cargo plane, huge, metallic billboards, their advertising scrubbed away, metal grill fencing, chain-link fencing, metal doors, corrugated iron, steel and plastic. Cars and trucks, somehow, sawn in half and stacked atop each other, a large children's play park carrousel welded upright. Almost anything that could be of use to fortify the gentle curving wall, was.</p><p>Patience found herself led around the perimeter. Every so often, a tiny gap would appear in the superstructure of the dome and she caught the barest glimpse of light and life inside. It was quite big. Making a quick calculation, she guessed that it had a rough area of around three large city blocks. The dome rose up high above and made a gentle curve out of sight.</p><p>They soon found themselves at the entrance, a large protectron robot standing impassive at the side.</p><p>“Evening, Deputy. Just visiting Moira with my friend here.” Valrie stood before the protectron.</p><p>“Very well. You will find Moira Brown at Craterside Supplies. Second level, to the right.” The lights of the protectron’s face plate flashed as it spoke in a deep, faintly angry voice with a military cadence. “Welcome to Megaton.”</p><p>A rumbling began as engines powered up. Two doors, made from the wings of a cargo plane began sliding upwards revealing a large entranceway to a pair of doors. Patience shook her head at the ingenuity as Valrie walked past the protectron robot to enter the city.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“The people in the Republic of Dave have had it hard. What with the recent, shocking, election results and Dave, himself, missing, presumed dead.</p><p>So, what’s happening in the all-new, all-different Republic of Shawna?</p><p>Well, it seems they have had an influx of new residents. Refugees from the now destroyed outpost of the Enclave have increased the population significantly.</p><p>The new Grand Army of the Republic successfully fought off a Deathclaw attack, not without casualties, I might add, and now the Republic have designs on expanding their influence with Old Olney square in their sights.</p><p>Now, I’m not one to give advice, but turning aside a couple of Deathclaws doesn’t mean they have a chance of clearing out the Deathclaw capital of the Wasteland.</p><p>Good luck with that, Shawna, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear of the Grand Army returning to the safety of the Republic, humbled, cut to ribbons and several soldiers fewer than when they started.</p><p>Take old Three Dog’s advice, young Republic, don’t piss off the sword fingered murder machines!”</p><p>-+-</p><p>Multi-coloured string lights began to glow as the day came to its inevitable turn to darkness. The town (city?) of Megaton still had the hustle and bustle of activity as Patience and Valrie took the gentle sloping path down towards the centre of the town.</p><p>If anything, the inside of Megaton was more eclectic than the surrounding walls. Everything from old busses and trucks, right through to cargo containers stacks of large, wheeled trash bins all utilised in the creation of homes, shops and other habitations. And, in the very centre of the crater, where Megaton had started, the huge nuclear bomb sat, listing to the side, like an old lion. Tired, past its prime, yet still able to wreak havoc at any time.</p><p>Valrie had told Patience that the last vault dweller to visit Megaton had rendered the bomb inert, but Patience didn’t trust that the bomb wouldn’t deteriorate further and explode anyway.</p><p>“Before we disturb Moira, you have to try Jenny’s Mole Rat burgers at the Brass Lantern.” Valrie pushed through the crowd, holding her elbows wide from her body to encourage wide-births. “God damn! This place has got overcrowded recently. Out of the god damned way, you dumb fucking ass lickers!”</p><p>Patience found herself slipping between the teeming crowd with some ease. It was possible that the raider clothes, covered in dried blood, she now wore and the assault rifle, resting diagonally across her chest, her finger never far from the trigger guard, had something to do with her not getting jostled as much. She received many an odd, furtive glance that never stayed upon her for long before they found the floor more interesting, all of a sudden.</p><p>Valrie led the way through the crowd, past hawkers and beggars, past people milking brahmin outside buildings, past several people dressed alike with faraway, fervent looks in their eyes and the image of an atom drawn upon their foreheads, singing the praises of The Atom and blessing people as they passed.</p><p>The Brass Lantern teetered right on the edge of the dirty puddle that marked the absolute bottom of the crater, the huge bomb, sitting at a cock-eyed angle, only feet away. A counter, with several high, back-less seats arrayed before it was where Valrie plonked herself down, climbing onto a seat and slapping the counter-top.</p><p>“Jenny, you food whore! Get me two Mole Rat burgers with all the fixings.” Valrie smiled and winked at the woman behind the counter.</p><p>“Leo! Two Fat Rats. Make ‘em good. They’re for the old hag.” The woman, Jenny, called through a hatch in the wall of the shack. She was a pretty woman, or had been. Age seemed to catch up with people fast in the Wasteland. She flicked her blonde hair behind her ear. “Who’s your friend? You know you’re both covered in dry blood, right?”</p><p>“We know. This is Patience.” Valrie patted the seat next to her, inviting Patience to sit. “She’s a vault dweller. Turned up in the middle of the Wasteland. No memory. No caps. Nothing.”</p><p>“Hello.” Patience offered her hand to Jenny, who giggled, biting her lip before taking the outstretched hand.</p><p>“Charmed, I’m sure.” Jenny dipped her head, looking up at Patience. Her hair fell from behind her ear and she returned it, with dainty fingers. “What brings you to Megaton?”</p><p>“Business. As in, none of yours.” Valrie leaned forward over the counter. “Now, are we going to get offered coffee, or do I have to fucking beg?”</p><p>“Coffee’s out. We got something looks like coffee and don’t taste too much like shit.” Jenny turned to pick up a coffee pot and two mugs, flicking a glance towards Patience. “I expect you like your drinks strong?”</p><p>“Jebus Christ!” Valrie groaned. “Leave the girl alone, you horny bitch. She just wants to eat and drink in peace. Like me.”</p><p>Jenny, shocked her flirtations had appeared so overt, brushed down the front of her overalls and adjusted her hair again, flustered. A ‘ding’ from a bell signalled the arrival of the food and she made a dramatic turn, head held high, to retrieve it from the hatch, placing the two burgers before Valrie and Patience.</p><p>Patience turned the plate the burger sat on, examining all sides of the food. It looked normal enough. The bun almost looked like real bread and the patty inside looked like a normal patty. Only a little darker brown than real burger meat. On the side of the plate, she found several cooked insects and some kind of sauce, that she couldn’t identify, in a little tub.</p><p>Taking the top half of the bun, she put a few insects on top of the patty and poured the sauce over the lot before replacing the bun. Picking it up with both hands, she took another look, let out a couple of deep sighs and bit down.</p><p>She groaned as she chewed, rolling her eyes.</p><p>“Knew you’d like it.” Valrie ripped into her burger, taking almost half into her mouth and chewed like she hadn’t eaten in days.</p><p>Like it? Patience loved it! It was pure, meaty ecstasy in a bun. Who knew those ugly creatures could taste so good? Patience began to think the Wasteland wasn’t all bad, after all.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>6</p><p>Craterside Supplies looked more like a workshop than a normal shop. Various pieces of equipment, that Patience couldn’t identify if she tried, littered the floorspace in a haphazard fashion. Some against the walls. Some seeming to have come delivered and remained where the deliverer had left it. Workbenches with smaller pieces of equipment lay at odd angles and the shop counter, to the right of the door, seemed covered with so many different things, it was unclear if they were for sale or only trash.</p><p>Moira Brown, a young woman of average height with mousey brown hair tied in a messy ponytail, sat at one of the workbenches in a dirty jump suit, bent over what appeared to be a Bloat Fly. One of those large insects that Valrie had avoided with such care.</p><p>“Oh! This is interesting!” Moira cooed to herself, unaware of her visitors. “Now what is the point of that?”</p><p>“Moira.” Valrie called to the shopkeeper. When the young woman didn’t answer, Valrie found a desk bell under some the things littering the counter and hammered at it, dinging it several times. “Moira! God damn it! Moira!”</p><p>Moira’s head raised up, looking upwards, to the sides, even under the workbench. Looking around at Valrie and Patience at the counter seemed to be the last place she thought the noise might have come from. Wearing some kind of contraption, made from several spectacle lenses on hinges that Moira could place one on front of the other, she spun on the chair and stared at them.</p><p>“A Bloat Fly has a gland that produces a wildly toxic hallucinogenic, but it doesn’t secrete it. Not at all. Why would that be?” It looked like the question was genuine and she stared at them through the complicated series of lenses, her eyes appearing huge and bloodshot. “I’ll pay good caps for anyone that will try the hallucinogen.”</p><p>“We’ll pass.” Valrie stepped towards Moira, pulling Patience along. “This is Patience. She’s a vault dweller. She’s lost her memory and we think she might find answers in this Pip-Boy on her arm. Problem is, it don’t seem to work too good.”</p><p>Moira slid from her seat and almost ran towards Patience, lifting her arm, twisting and turning it as she examined every inch of the device. She clicked her tongue a few times, uttered several ‘oohs’ and ‘hmms’, switched it off and back on again and then dropped the arm, looking up at Patience through those strange lenses.</p><p>“You know you’re covered in dry blood?” She turned her attention to Valrie. “Both of you.”</p><p>“We know.” Patience lifted her Pip-Boy up in front of Moira, flicking through the options, showing the young woman the ‘Incorrect Location’ message. “Valrie says you can fix this?”</p><p>“Sure! Well, I can try.” Moira removed the spectacle lens device and dropped it on the counter. Her eyes still seemed quite big without the lenses. “I got a good look at another Pip-Boy a while back. The Lone Wanderer’s. Do you know them? Anyway, after they helped me write my book ... You know about my book? Anyway, after that and before they mysteriously disappeared, they let me have a good long look at their Pip-Boy, which I thought was real friendly of them ...”</p><p>“Moira!” Valrie rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Can you help, or not?”</p><p>“Sure thing! You just take it off and I’ll give it the old once over while you two shower and clean those clothes.” She spun around, her face serious all of a sudden, looking to make sure that no-one could hear. She continued in a loud whisper. “Don’t tell anyone I have a shower or a washing machine. Everyone will want to use them.”</p><p>“I can’t take it off. I think it’s locked.” Patience showed the locking mechanism to Moira who, without saying a word, pulled two hair pins from her head and began trying to unlock the Pip-Boy.</p><p>After a couple of seconds the lock clicked and flicked open. When she tried to remove it, however, Patience almost screamed in pain as something that felt like a thousand needles seemed to inject molten lava into her arm. A trickle of blood appeared from under the Pip-Boy and Moira stopped trying to remove it, clicking the lock back in place and holding up her arms as if to prove she hadn’t done anything.</p><p>“Clearly not the way to go!” Moira retrieved her spectacle lens device and, putting it on and moving several lenses into place, looked closer at the Pip-Boy and where it attached to Patience. She clicked her tongue again, muttered several ‘ohs’ and ‘oh dear’s. “Well that’s attached to you.”</p><p>“I know that!” Patience, once again showing little of the word, growled at Moira, staring with undisguised ire. “Why did it feel like you were ripping my arm off?”</p><p>“No. I mean it’s attached to you. Surgically.” She made a claw with her fingers and gripped her own arm to demonstrate. “Like, wires and tubes and things implanted into your arm. That’s not coming off unless your arm does and, if I might say, if it ever does, I’d love to get hold of your arm.”</p><p>“So, you can’t fix it? God fucking dammit!” Valrie jerked her hand into her jacket and pulled out her cigarettes.</p><p>“Stop your cursing! And I don’t allow smoking in my lab. Workshop. Shop. In here. No smoking in here. There’s sensitive equipment.” Moira snatched the cigarette from Valrie’s mouth and threw it over her shoulder.</p><p>“Well, excuse me Miss Fucking Fancy-Pants, Duchess of La-Di-Da.” Despite the words, Valrie returned the cigarette pack to her pocket. “If it be pleasing her most merciful majesty, can this here contraption be repaired by your noble and enlightened fucking hands?”</p><p>“Maybe.” Valrie threw up her arms in despair and turned away. “I’ll try. You two best get cleaned up first and I’ll set up the terminal. There are spare clothes in my room while yours are drying ... Don’t tell anyone I have a drier!”</p><p>Without showing them where the room with the shower, washing machine and drier were, Moira spun away, searching several places, picking up wires, looking at the connectors and throwing them aside.</p><p>Patience dipped her head into a room at the side. Spying what looked like a shower, she hooked a finger towards Valrie. Moira had already appeared to have forgotten about them both as she moved through the workshop like a mini-hurricane.</p><p>A shower would be so nice right about now.</p><p>-+-</p><p>The shower, lukewarm and stuttering, gave Patience a small sense of cleanliness. At least she no longer had Super Mutant blood caked to her skin and sticking her hair together. Valrie made a perfunctory attempt at showering, stepping in, giving herself a lacklustre wipe down and stepping out again within a few seconds.</p><p>Patience couldn’t even begin to guess the amount of things that had emerged from the pockets of Valrie’s coat, a sizeable pile upon the floor, before the coat and all the other items covered in blood had found themselves thrust into the rickety looking washing machine. They had each found a spare set of grubby coveralls to wear while their own clothes cleaned. Valrie seemed drowned in hers and Patience found she was of similar proportions to Moira, if a little tight due to her musculature.</p><p>In the shop area, they found Moira tinkering away at a computer terminal, the back removed and a succession of wires dribbling from inside and over the bench the terminal sat upon. Even as they entered, a flash of blue light and a howl of pain hit their ears and Moira danced back from the terminal wafting her hand, then sucking her singed fingers.</p><p>“Oh, hi!” Moira noticed them enter and gave a half-guilty smile. “Don’t mind that. If you don’t get electrocuted once or twice while fixing something, you’re doing it wrong, I say.”</p><p>“Thanks for the shower and clothes.” Patience stepped towards the terminal, looking at the complex series of new wirings. “Are you sure this is going to work.”</p><p>“Oh, sure! One hundred percent!” Moira screwed her face up, exaggerating a look of thought. “Well, seventy-five. Well, no less than sixty percent sure. I’ve had to tinker a little bit, but we’ll have that Pip-Boy cracked in no time.”</p><p>“Well, I’m full of confidence.” Valrie sat upon a seat near the shop counter, put a cigarette in her mouth and then returned it to its pack as Moira frowned at her. “I’ve been singing your praises, Moira. Don’t make me look like a fool, now.”</p><p>Moira stood smiling for a second before throwing up a finger, urging them to wait, and then dived into a crate of gadgets and widgets, to the side. She emerged holding a large circuit board and returned to the terminal, connecting all the disparate wires to the board. Then, taking yet another cable, connected that to the front of the circuit board and stood, holding the other end before her, and smiled again at Patience.</p><p>“Now I’m ready. Take a seat.” She indicated a stool off to the side of the terminal. “Now, usually I’d say this won’t hurt, but with all that stuff sticking into your arm, I’m not willing to bet that it won’t. Sorry.”</p><p>Moira examined the Pip-Boy for a second and then flipped open a small flap at the back, uttering a ‘aha!’ as it opened. Then, while trying to maintain a distance, she connected the cable into the back of the Pip-Boy, slow and with care. As soon as it clicked into place, Moira almost jumped backwards covering her face with her hands. When nothing happened, she sighed with relief, dropping her arms and sitting on a chair before the terminal.</p><p>“Your professionalism, or lack thereof, is not increasing my confidence, Moira.” Patience swallowed a laugh at Valrie. The older woman, fidgeting her fingers, reaching for her cigarette pack and then pulling her hand away, seemed to be finding the whole thing less than interesting.</p><p>Moira didn’t hear, or made a diplomatic decision to ignore Valrie. Either way, her attention appeared absorbed in the task at hand. Flitting between tapping keys on the terminal, then using the dials on the Pip-Boy, she made several hushed utterances. At one point, she produced a pencil from her hair and began writing on a spare sheet of paper. When that soon filled, she began ‘drawing’ in the air, instead. Making the occasional chew of the pencil.</p><p>“This, this is all so fascinating!” She pointed the pencil at the terminal screen, but all Patience saw was lines of text and numbers, all meaningless to her. “Here is the code that’s locked the device. That I can bypass. Now, this here is the interesting stuff.”</p><p>“You’ll have to explain it to me, I don’t speak computer.” Even with that said, Patience found her self leaning forward to look at the screen. “Give it to me straight, doc. Am I gonna live?”</p><p>“Ha! No. I mean, yes, you’ll live. But, kinda, maybe, not for long.” It was a nervous laugh and the words caused Valrie to stand up and join them at the terminal. “See, this code is a release code. For what, I don’t know. That’s one of the things I can’t crack. You reach a certain location and, pop!, something gets released into your blood stream. Could be poison, could be medicine, could be Jet, for all I can tell.”</p><p>“Well, it’s simple. She doesn’t go near this location, right?” Valrie pushed between Patience and Moira, trying to get a better look at the screen.</p><p>“It’s not that simple. Sorry.” Moira drew lines on the screen with the pencil. “This code and this code are encrypted locations. One opens up some kind of instructions, that I can’t crack, the other switches on the poison/medicine/drugs pump, which I also can’t crack. I can’t tell which one is which.”</p><p>“So, I could just happen to run into either of these locations and trigger the code?” Patience lifted her arm, trying to see the tubes and wires connecting the Pip-Boy to her arm.</p><p>“Oh, absolutely!” Moira tapped her teeth with the pencil then squirrelled it away, back into her hair. “Could be anywhere. Could be ten feet away, could be a hundred miles away. There’s no way I can tell. Oh, and there’s some kind of two-way radio in the Pip-Boy, sending and receiving signals. Where the other radio is, I can’t crack.”</p><p>“Someone’s fucking spying on her?” Valrie switched off the Pip-Boy, but Moira switched it back on.</p><p>“Yeah. And it’s signalling even when the Pip-Boy is switched off.” For the first time, Moira lapsed into silence, staring at Patience.</p><p>For her part, Patience didn’t know what to think. What Moira had found out gave her too much to think about. From the chance of the Pip-Boy poisoning her, to the two hidden locations, to the discovery of the surveillance of her. It was all too much. She pulled out the cable from the Pip-Boy, causing a little shriek and cringe from Moira, stood up and strode to the door. She needed air and she needed to think.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“More news about the new vault dweller in our midst.</p><p>The Beautiful Stranger and companion found themselves accosted by Super Mutants in the outskirts of Fairfax Ruins. I know what you’re thinking and, no, this isn’t an obituary.</p><p>The Super Mutants and their ‘King’ (and anyone who knows their history of the World-That-Was knows that we don’t take kindly to kings, especially here in good old Washington D.C.!) were engaged in a running battle with raiders as the Super Mutants continued their expansion outside of the D.C. ruins.</p><p>Now, the Beautiful Stranger, hero that she is, decided to jump in and Fight The Good Fight against those ugly mothers. Except things didn’t go too well.</p><p>Outnumbered and outgunned, our avenging angel almost got herself killed, until ...</p><p>The Super Mutants walked away!</p><p>That’s right! The jolly yellow giants took one look at the Beautiful Stranger and retreated!</p><p>Now, you know and I know, that just doesn’t happen. Those things go toe-to-toe with the armoured boys and girls in the Bee-Oh-Ess, but one little vault dweller makes them turn tail and run?</p><p>What is going on there? What do they know about the Beautiful Stranger that we don’t? Is she the hero the Capital Wasteland needs or is she something ... else?</p><p>As always, old Three Dog will keep his ear to the ground and keep you, wonderful listeners, informed every step of the way.”</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>7</p><p>While they had spent time inside Craterside Supplies, night had drawn in. The town of Megaton had lit up like a Christmas tree, staving off the darkness. The multi-coloured string lights trailed along the paths and thoroughfares. Blinking neon signs twinkled and flashed outside the numerous businesses, starting to close for the night.</p><p>The citizens of Megaton still packed the thin paths and trails, moving this way and that, talking, arguing, flirting. From here, on the second level, Patience looked down upon them, a little sad and a little proud. The people of the world had suffered the greatest of disasters. Seen the world in flames, but they had continued. They had had children and their children had children. They had survived and, she hoped, one day they might thrive again</p><p>She switched off the radio on her Pip-Boy, not wanting to hear any more hyperbole about her, her actions, or her intentions. She had no intentions. Other than learning who she was and where she came from. The mysterious hidden vault that the DJ, Three Dog, had said he didn’t know about.</p><p>With the revelations that Moira uncovered, Patience began to wonder if finding out about the vault she had emerged from was a good idea, after all. It seemed they had sent her out on some kind of mission, disfiguring her arm in the process, and having some kind of fail-safe in place. To kill her if she failed in her mission? To heal her if things went wrong? She rubbed her arm around the edges of the Pip-Boy. Ever since she had learned about the wires and tubes in her arm, it itched.</p><p>The sound of a lighter firing caused Patience to turn around. Valrie had joined her on the platform, tugging and scratching at the coveralls as if she had found them infested with fleas, cigarette dangling from her mouth. The older woman joined Patience at the railing, leaning almost double against it. She tapped ash from her cigarette over the side, then leaned further out to make sure she hadn’t hit anybody with it.</p><p>“Comes to something when you get thrown outside to have god damned cigarette!” She picked an errant piece of tobacco from her tongue and flicked it aside. “Fucking sensitive equipment!”</p><p>“Her house, her rules.” Patience smiled, but Valrie didn’t seem to catch the smile but nodded at the words.</p><p>“See these fuckers?” She pointed at all the people walking through the town, cigarette held between two fingers, the tip glowing faint orange in the night. “None of them have the first fucking idea what they want from life. They get up, eat, go work or scavenge, come home, eat, maybe they get to fuck someone, maybe they don’t, then they sleep. That’s it. That’s all they’ve got.”</p><p>“There’s a point to this, but I’ll be fucked if I can see it.” Patience took the cigarette from Valrie’s fingers, receiving a sharp look from the older woman. She took a long drag and passed it back.</p><p>“The fucking point is, Miss Smart Mouth, that they got it worse than you. They’ve got nothing to aim for, nothing to learn, nowhere to fucking go! This is it! All they got.” Valrie turned around, leaning with her back against the railing, elbows resting upon the top. “You, you got something to aim for. Find out who you are, why you were sent out of your vault. You have a purpose, even if you don’t know what is. Jebus Aitch Christ, these fuckers would kill for half that.”</p><p>“So, what you’re really saying is, take my head out of my ass and get on with it?” Patience stood up straight, thrusting her hands into the coverall pockets. There was a hole in one.</p><p>“Figure you got me understood.” Valrie dropped the almost dead cigarette and crushed it beneath her boot. “Listen, Moira says she’s done all she can with that thing. She reckons, maybe, you could get more out of it if you took it to Vault-Tec headquarters.”</p><p>“And where’s that?” Patience lifted her arm and started switching through the options on the Pip-Boy, landing on ‘Map’. The harsh green light from the screen making her face look distorted and monstrous.</p><p>“Downtown, in the D.C. ruins. I’ve no idea exactly where it is, though. That’s as far as my knowledge can take you.” Valrie gave Patience an odd, sideways glance. “And this is as far as I can take you.”</p><p>“Oh. Right.” It did come as a shock, even though Valrie had said all along that she would only bring her to Megaton. Valrie was a trader, she’d completed her trade and done everything that Patience had asked, and more. “Well, I guess this is goodbye, then.”</p><p>“Not yet, you dumb fuck! I’m not leaving til morning.” Valrie pushed herself up from the railing. “We’re sleeping in the shop tonight. The Common Rooms are full and you’ve got no caps for staying at the saloon. And, when I do fucking leave, I don’t want to hear no ‘goodbyes’, all right?”</p><p>Saying nothing more, Valrie headed back inside, leaving Patience alone on the platform outside the shop. It wasn’t like she hadn’t expected Valrie to leave, at some point. The problem was that she had become used to the cantankerous, foul-mouthed woman. She’d become the highlight of Patience’s time in the Capital Wasteland and, for certain, Patience was going to miss her.</p><p>Patience knocked her knuckles against the railing and sighed. Tomorrow is another day, she thought.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Patience found herself woken up by a loud clatter of metal, plastic and other things falling to the floor. Moira, wearing tattered long-johns, her hair bunched up and sticking out in odd directions, wandered through the shop area, scratching the nape of her neck. The sleeping bag where Valrie had settled for the night lay empty, beside Patience, left in disarray.</p><p>“Oh. Morning. Sorry about the noise.” Moira, somehow, noticed Patience had awoken, while sifting through a pile of, what looked like to Patience, junk. “I can’t seem to find my insulated screwdriver. Oh, and Valrie’s at the Brass Lantern, getting food for her trip home. She says she’ll spot you a breakfast.”</p><p>“Thanks.” Patience rubbed her eyes and looked to her side, noticing her clothes, now dried, dumped on the floor beside her.</p><p>“You know, I’ve been thinking.” Moira picked up a piece of metal and stared at it for a while, seeming to wonder what it was, before tossing it aside. “You’ll be needing a map to get through downtown to get to Vault-Tec headquarters. The only person I know that might have one is Colin Moriarty, he owns the saloon. Only, he won’t give it you for free.”</p><p>“But, I don’t have any money ... um ... caps.” Patience dragged herself out of her sleeping bag and began getting dressed. “And I don’t have anything to sell. Well, nothing that I don’t need.”</p><p>“I’ve been thinking about that, too.” Moira scratched her armpit through a hole in the long-johns and sat on a small stool, looking at Patience for the first time. “I could always use more parts. Circuit boards, components and the like. You bring back whatever you find when you’re in Vault-Tec HQ and I’ll pay you for them and I’ll give you a hundred caps as a sort of downpayment?”</p><p>“Will hundred caps be enough for this Moriarty guy?” Patience shoved a hand into the strapless top, adjusting her breast inside the tight, leather garment.</p><p>“Couldn’t tell you, but it’s more than you have.” Moira shrugged, raising her hands. “Oh! And if you find any Super Mutant body parts I’ll take those, also, especially brains.”</p><p>“I’ll look for components.” It felt good to have her sidearm back on her hip and the assault rifle slung across her  body. “I’ll leave the body parts to others. Thanks.”</p><p>“Okay. No problem.” Moira didn’t seem disappointed. In fact, since meeting her, Patience couldn’t say she hadn’t seen Moira without a smile on her face. She just seemed like a cheerful person. Moira looked down at her long-johns. “Oh. I thought I’d got dressed already.”</p><p>Before disappearing into the back room to get dressed, Moira pulled out a small bag from behind the shop counter and gave it to Patience. Opening it, Patience found a tidy sum of caps, most like more than the hundred that Moira had promised. She hadn’t even counted them before handing them to Patience. Patience considered that making a profit was not the highest priority in Moira’s chaotic mind.</p><p>Outside the shop, the day had started with a fine mist trailing everywhere. It gave the town a dull sense of foreboding. Even the town’s residents, so vocal and busy the night before, appeared subdued and quiet.</p><p>Patience found Valrie sat outside the Brass Lantern, throwing some kind of porridge-like paste down her throat, using a bent spoon. Noticing Patience arriving, she gave a curt nod and pointed to the seat beside her. Jenny, the woman behind the counter, straightened up and pushed her hair behind her ear upon seeing Patience.</p><p>“Now, don’t go starting that flirtation nonsense again, Jenny!” Valrie used her spoon to point at Jenny. Jenny’s face flushed. “Just let the girl eat.”</p><p>“What’s on the menu this morning?” Patience hitched up on to the tall seat, giving Jenny a little smile.</p><p>“Some kind of muck made from insects. Apparently, Mole Rat Burgers ain’t a fucking breakfast item.” Valrie gave Jenny a cold stare, even as she continued eating. “Insect muck for my friend here. Please.”</p><p>“Thanks. I’ll pass.” Patience held up a hand before Jenny turned to call the order. “But I will have some of that not-coffee, please.”</p><p>“So, any idea where you’re gonna start? Going in to Vault-Tec?”  Valrie held up two fingers, telling Jenny she’d like a not-coffee too. “Personally, after what you found out last night, I’d humbly suggest fucking off that death trap. Come back with me. I could use a bodyguard when I’m on my trading route.”</p><p>“I would, but I’d always be wondering. I’d never be able to settle.” She mouthed a silent ‘thanks’ to Jenny as the woman placed the not-coffee before her. Jenny grinned and dipped her eyes, blushing. “Moira says a guy called Moriarty might have a map to the HQ.”</p><p>“Colin Moriarty?” Valrie slapped her hand on the counter, hitting it with the spoon. “She’s sending you to that weasel faced fucker? God damn it!”</p><p>“Alright. So, I take it that this Moriarty guy is no good?” Patience raised an eyebrow at Valrie’s outburst.</p><p>“No good? No fucking good?” Valrie adjusted her football helmet staring, with unrestrained anger, at the counter. “That fucker could split himself in two and they’d both try to fuck each other over. Or fucking kill each other and hide their own fucking body! No good? No, he ain’t!”</p><p>“Well, I guess I’ll just have to find a way to the HQ some other way.” Patience took a sip of the not-coffee and almost didn’t gag.</p><p>“No.” Valrie sighed, bowing her head. “If anyone knows how to get there, it’s him. Despite everything else, the man knows a lot of shit. Just don’t fucking trust him! Don’t ... Ah, hell! Fine! I’ll come with you! God damn it! You’re gonna be the death of me, girl.”</p><p>Patience couldn’t lie. Knowing Valrie would be there when she met this Colin Moriarty gave her a degree of comfort. She was still finding her way in the Capital Wasteland. Still had a lot to learn and, foul mouth or not, Valrie was a good teacher.</p><p>She just hoped this anger she had against Moriarty didn’t spike the proceedings that were to come.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“The Brotherhood of Steel, fresh from kicking the Enclave in the collective ass are now battling their own.</p><p>The Outcasts, former Bee-Oh-Ess members, have clashed with their old compadres several times over the past few weeks with no clear winner in sight.</p><p>What does this have to do with you, dear listeners? Well, it seems neither side are too choosy about who may be around when the bullets, electricity and super-heated plasma are being thrown at each other.</p><p>So, here’s some advice: If you see a throw-down between the Bee-Oh-Ess and the Outcasts, avoid them. If you can’t avoid them, find the strongest cover and hide. And if you can’t even hide, hit the deck and pray you don’t get your ass shot off.</p><p>And if any Brotherhood or Outcasts are listening to this; Play nice, children. The Wasteland is hard enough without you fools making things worse for normal, everyday citizens just trying to survive.</p><p>As always, this is Three Dog telling you to be safe out there.”</p><p>-+-</p><p>At any other time, Patience would have described Moriarty’s Saloon as a dive, but, after seeing the rest of Megaton, it was clear the bar was in keeping with the rest of the settlement. Several tables spotted the room, along with accompanying chairs. A couple of patrons cradled whatever alcohol they had ordered this early in the morning.</p><p>At the rear, beside a set of stairs, two women and two men sat on chairs, waiting, hopeful. The bar, like the floor, was sticky and grimy. Even then, the bar top was being rubbed in fastidious fashion, with gusto, by a poor, disfigured creature.</p><p>“Don’t stare.” Valrie whispered as she saw Patience’s open-mouthed look at the creature. “Ain’t you never seen a ghoul before?”</p><p>“What happened to him?” Patience returned the whisper, more quiet than Valrie, horrified at seeing the poor creature. Skin seeming to have sloughed from its skull, what skin left resembling a putrid, sickly green. Eyes, without lids, staring, bloodshot. Nose half-rotted away.</p><p>“The Wasteland happened. Some people spend too much time around rads and they die horribly. Others turn into fucking ghouls. No longer human.” Valrie pinched Patience’s arm, hard, and it shook her out of staring at the ghoul. “His name’s Gob. Just don’t stare, alright?”</p><p>“Hello, Miss Valrie. Long time, no see.” The ghoul, Gob, leaned against the counter. “What can I get you? We got the usual stuff, all kinds of alcohol. We got four whores now, two of each. Only hundred and twenty caps and room thrown in.”</p><p>“We don’t want no fucking whores, Gob. We want to see your fuck-face boss.” Valrie’s words almost seemed to make Gob flinch. He stopped leaning against the bar and stood up straight.</p><p>“Mister Moriarty is indisposed right now.” The ghoul threw a quick glance at a door behind him, nervous. He leaned forward again in a conspiratorial fashion. “Please don’t insult the boss, Miss Valrie, he takes it out on me.”</p><p>“Not my fucking problem, Gob.” Valrie took a shot glass, grabbed a bottle and filled the glass before knocking the drink straight back. “You should have run away to find your Mom when you had the chance. It’s not my fault you stayed working for the ass-licking piece of shit.”</p><p>“Valrie! I thought it was your dulcet tones I heard.” A man emerged from the door behind the bar. A middle-aged man, with greying hair and a Van Dyke beard. Patience guessed this was Colin Moriarty. “And what brings you into my establishment, my lovely?”</p><p>“Don’t ‘my lovely’ me, you rat bastard.” Valrie grabbed the neck of the nearest bottle and, thinking she was about to throw it, Patience grabbed her arm. “Now, I’m not one to hold fucking grudges, you piece of shit, but I make exception for you.”</p><p>“Grudges? My dear Valrie, there’s no need for grudges.” Without even asking Patience’s name, he stood beside her and leaned against the bar, making a close examination, from head to toe. “Valrie, you see, thinks I welched on a deal. I did. I have to admit, but it was ten years ago. I moved on.”</p><p>“Why are you telling me?” Patience didn’t like the man. Straight away, she found a great distaste for him. She couldn’t explain it. From the forced Irish accent, to the way he moved and the way he spoke. He reminded her of a snake.</p><p>“Because I’d get more sense out of this bar, than from Lovely Valrie, so, surely, I’d get even more from you and ...” His eyes roved up and down her body again. She almost expected him to lick his lips. “Well, look at you. You’re far more interesting than that dusty old mare. No offence, Valrie dear.”</p><p>“I need information. I’m told you might have it.” Patience dropped her hand to her sidearm. She had spotted the silhouette of another man through the door Moriarty had emerged from. An armed man.</p><p>Moriarty slapped the bar in dramatic fashion and looked around at the four whores and two patrons.</p><p>“Straight to the point! I like that! Too many of these arses beat around the bush before getting to the fucking point.” His head snapped back to Patience. “Information is a premium business, darling. What kind of information are you looking for?”</p><p>“A map. To get to Vault-Tec Headquarters.” Moriarty’s eyes narrowed and he drummed his fingers upon the bar top, several times. After a few seconds, he reached behind the bar and brought out a dusty bottle of whiskey. Taking two shot glasses with him, he turned back towards his office.</p><p>“Let’s discuss this somewhere more private.” The hand holding the shot glasses raised a finger. “Not you, Valrie. Just me and your girl here.”</p><p>“Does that include the mouth breather with the .45 in your office?” Patience’s hand remained on the butt of her sidearm.</p><p>Moriarty stopped, half-turned, and looked Patience up and down once more. Less lascivious this time, more calculating. She could almost see the calculations and strategies whirring through his mind. He made a half-impressed shrug and crooked his finger to Valrie, urging her to follow.</p><p>Patience didn’t like this. She didn’t like Moriarty and she didn’t like the idea of going into a private office with him, whether Valrie was there or not. Valrie had been right, the man couldn’t be trusted. That was clear and obvious, but, she felt, he was also a very dangerous man. Very dangerous, indeed.</p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>8</p><p>The room was smaller than she expected. Wide enough to walk around the desk, with filing cabinets lined up against the walls. Moriarty had dropped into a large, comfortable leather chair and already had two shot-glasses filled with whiskey. He tapped the top of the desk, his legs crossed, staring at Patience as she entered, Valrie close behind.</p><p>The mouth breather turned stood behind Moriarty, arms crossed, the .45 now holstered and an assault rifle strung to his back. The man was young, around twenty, no older than twenty-five, but he had the eyes of an older man. A sharp scar paralleled his left eyebrow and the military grade body armour and fatigues looked battered and well worn on his well muscled body. Patience knew a dangerous man when she saw one.</p><p>“Five hundred caps.” They were the first words that Moriarty uttered as soon as Patience sat in one of the low chairs opposite the man.</p><p>“Go fuck yourself. Five hundred caps, my ass.” Valrie drank one of the shots of whiskey before she even sat down. “That’s a play and you know it. Don’t fuck around. Tell her what you really want for the map.”</p><p>“I don’t recall looking at you when I called my price, Valrie dear.” He didn’t look at Valrie. His eyes remained upon Patience, finger tap, tap, tapping the desk top. “Five hundred caps.”</p><p>“What she said.” Patience leaned back lifting one foot on to her other knee. “I don’t know much about the economy around here, but five hundred sounds deliberately excessive. You want me to refuse. To try and bargain. Come over as desperate.”</p><p>For the first time, Moriarty looked away, upwards to his companion, or bodyguard. The man didn’t move, his eyes blazed at Patience. He did, Patience noticed, flex his fingers. It was slight. A tiny amount. The man was anxious. Impatient. Moriarty returned his eyes to Patience.</p><p>“Alright. You’re both clever girls.” He pushed the remaining full shot glass towards Patience, retrieved the empty one and refilled it from the bottle, downing it with one, swift gulp. “What do you think isn’t ‘excessive’?”</p><p>“How about nothing, you rat faced fuck?” Valrie took the glass in front of Patience and drank the contents, almost throwing the empty glass across the table to Moriarty. He continued to ignore her.</p><p>“It’s another play. You want me to offer something so you can turn it down and appear offended.” With her hands in her lap, relaxed, inoffensive, Patience made a deliberate blink. She wasn’t about to allow the man to think he was in a staring contest. “You have an offer in mind, right now, you just want impose your authority in the matter. Like these chairs compared to yours. Yours is big, comfy, high. Ours are low, simple and rough. It’s a power thing. If you need props to show how powerful you are, then you don’t have as much power as you think.”</p><p>“Is that right?” The tapping increased in speed and weight.</p><p>“It is.” Without looking at Moriarty’s bodyguard, Patience nodded towards him. “Like him. Big man. Big guns. Crossed arms to impress us with his size. Yet, he’s worried. Anxious. He knows I could kill him before his finger itched towards his .45.”</p><p>The man moved for the first time, arms uncrossing, eyes blazing, face in a grimace. Before his arms had finished uncrossing, Patience’s sidearm found itself aimed at his groin. The man froze. Patience’s eyes never left Moriarty and the Irishman begin to chuckle, placing a hand on his bodyguard’s arm, pushing him back.</p><p>“Well, aren’t you the cocky little bitch?” He leaned back in his chair, stroking the Van Dyke. “Alright, you win. We cut the bullshit.”</p><p>“About fucking time.” Valrie reached for the whiskey bottle, but Moriarty thwarted her, moving it out of reach. Instead, she took out a cigarette, lit it and blew smoke over the table towards Moriarty.</p><p>“You, my fast drawing friend, want to go to Vault-Tec HQ. I want something from Vault-Tec HQ.” Again, he refilled the shot glasses, giving Valrie a warning glance. “It’s come to my attention that there’s information in the Vault-Tec computers that I want, but it can only be accessed by someone with one of those fancy bangles you got there on your arm.”</p><p>“What kind of information?” Patience had still not holstered her pistol, keeping it aimed at the bodyguard’s groin.</p><p>“Let me tell you a story.” He waved at Patience’s pistol, a dismissive gesture, and waited for her to return it to the holster on her hip. “Now, there’s a man comes into my lovely establishment. Once a week, every week. Every week, he chooses one of my whores. He prefers Nova, but he’s not fussy. Any whore will do. Woman, man, hell, I reckon he’d be fine with the fucking ghoul! So, anyways, this man has a kink. He likes to lick arses. Not the arse-hole. The arse. The buttocks. The crack. Never the arse-hole. Spends an hour doing just that, the weird fucker. Now, I’m a curious man. I like to know things. But I never, ever ask him why he likes licking arses. I never ask.”</p><p>“Why?” It was Valrie that asked the question, leaning forward.</p><p>“I’ll tell you why I don’t ask.” For the first time he gave Valrie more than a glance, eyes boring into her. “Because it’s none of my fucking business, is why! Same as it’s none of your fucking business why I want that information!”</p><p>“That’s your price for the map? Access to Vault-Tec computers?” Moriarty’s eyes returned to Patience, losing the ire he showed towards Valrie.</p><p>“That’s my fucking price.” He spread his arms in smug triumph. “And it’s not a map I’ll be giving you, it’s a guide.”</p><p>“Aww, fuck no!” Valrie realised before Patience what Moriarty meant, pointing towards the bodyguard. “You think she’s going to trust that fucker?”</p><p>“It’s either him or nothing.” Moriarty sat back in his chair, interlocking his fingers on his stomach. He’d put Patience and Valrie in check, he now waited for the sacrifice or the surrender. “Vincent, show the ladies your warmest smile.”</p><p>The bodyguard, Vincent, did nothing of the sort. He remained in his cross-armed position, not even the slightest sign of a smile on his face. Patience considered things for a moment. She had no illusions that she could trust Vincent, or, especially, Moriarty. It boiled down to a matter of whether what she needed to do was worth the danger.</p><p>She reached over, taking the full shot glass and downed it in one gulp, turning it over and slamming it down upon Moriarty’s desk.</p><p>“Done.” She only hoped she wouldn’t come to regret the decision.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“You're listening to the adventures of me, Herbert "Daring" Dashwood, and my stalwart ghoul manservant, Argyle. Today's episode: If you knew Olney, like I know Olney.”</p><p>“Well, here it is, boss. Old Olney. And I can think of a million places I’d rather be.”</p><p>“Chin up, Argyle, old chum. We’ll put this mystery to bed before lunchtime.”</p><p>“Are you sure, boss? You’ve been scratching your head for ten minutes.”</p><p>“It’s this dashed map! I can’t seem to make head nor tail of it. What do your ghoulish eyes see?”</p><p>“Well, if that building is this building and this building is that building, that puts us in front of this building.”</p><p>“That’s what I like about you, Argyle. Always building to a crescendo.”</p><p>“That’s terrible, boss. Stick to adventuring and leave the comedy to politicians, why don’t ya?”</p><p>“Rawwwwr!”</p><p>“What was that?”</p><p>“Nothing to worry about, O’ faithful manservant. It’s probably just the wind.”</p><p>“No it ain’t, boss. It’s a Deathclaw! Shall I use the Deva-Strafer now?”</p><p>“Not yet, it only has charge for one good shot. I say ... we run!”</p><p>“Great idea, boss!”</p><p>“Rawwwwr rawwwwr!”</p><p>“It’s gaining on us and I don’t fancy becoming a ghoul shish kabob!”</p><p>“Quick! Into the sewers!”</p><p>“Are you sure, boss. Hiding in sewers never goes well for us.”</p><p>“Nonsense! What’s the worst that could happen?”</p><p>“Screech clang!”</p><p>“Stop right there, surface dwellers!”</p><p>“Ghouls! With guns!”</p><p>“Geez, boss, talk about out of the frying pan, into the fire!”</p><p>“Be sure and tune in next time for another exciting adventure of me, Herbert “Daring” Dashwood and my stalwart ghoul manservant Argyle!”</p><p>-+-</p><p>Patience could tell that Valrie was itching to say something. She did remain silent as they left Moriarty’s office, even as the saloon owner offered ‘free cock, or pussy, or both’ for the rest of the day. Patience didn’t even turn him down, feeling the growing anger from Valrie as they left the saloon.</p><p>The low-lying mist had dissipated, somewhat, and the paths and trails of Megaton were growing more crowded as they pushed their way down the ramp, passing the Brass Lantern, and then onwards towards the ramp leading to Craterside Supplies. When the crowd eased a little, Valrie grabbed Patience’s arm, turning her around.</p><p>“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Valrie’s eyes maintained a constant movement, ensuring no-one stopped to listen. “I’ve told you that fucker can’t be trusted and still you go right ahead and decide to take his fucking bodyguard with you. You are dumber than a feral ghoul with its ass on fire!”</p><p>“It’s alright. I can handle Vincent.” Somehow, she knew this for a fact. The man had training, that was clear. He was also strong and not stupid, at least, not that stupid. Yet, she knew she could beat him. Knew for certain. “Besides, he won’t do anything until he has what Moriarty wants. After that, yeah, he’ll probably try something, but I’ll be ready.</p><p>“Oh! You know that for a fucking fact?” Valrie reached up and rapped her knuckles on Patience’s forehead. “Wake up, dumb ass! Moriarty does nothing for free! And don’t go thinking that he thinks getting him this ‘information’ is payment. It is not!”</p><p>“I’ll be fine!” Patience found it cute that Valrie seemed worried. She may come across as gruff and vulgar, but there was a heart to the woman. “You just go on back to Wintergreen. Make sure he hasn’t burned down your store.”</p><p>Valrie rubbed her chin, walked away a few paces and then turned back. It was obvious she was fighting some kind of dilemma. She tugged at her coat, then adjusted her football helmet. Lifting her finger, she seemed to be about to say something and stopped. Looked both ways at people passing by.</p><p>“I’m not going home.” Valrie grimaced at Patience’s raised eyebrow. “I’m coming with you. God damn it! I can’t let you go in there alone with that man’s gun-for-hire. And don’t think I’m doing it for fucking free! It’ll cost you! I don’t know what, but you’ll pay for it somehow.”</p><p>“Oh, Valrie! I didn’t know you cared.” Patience tried to hide the little smile.</p><p>“I don’t! I’m protecting an investment. I’ve put a lot of time into you and I don’t want it going to waste.” Valrie avoided Patience’s eyes, looking anywhere else. “I swear, i’ll make certain that, if I die following your stupid ass into the Ruins, I’ll make sure Wintergreen hunts you down!”</p><p>“He’ll only forget.” Patience couldn’t help but chuckle.</p><p>Valrie’s bravado lessened, a little. She looked up at Patience and shared a wry smile. Patience had only known the woman for a few days, yet she felt they had been friends for much longer. Valrie would never admit to it, this was obvious. Patience got the impression that Valrie had a nomadic sense of friendship. Seeing people only for short amounts of time, moving on. But the older woman was infectious and had a certain dirt charm about her.</p><p>“You’re arm’s blinking.” Valrie pointed at the Pip-Boy on Patience’s arm. A green light on the screen blinking in a short, slow rhythm.</p><p>Lifting her arm, Patience cycled through the options on the Pip-Boy, passing the ‘Status’, ‘VATS’, ‘Data’ and ‘Map’ options to the blinking ‘Radio’ option. Selecting that, she saw a new channel, labeled ‘Unknown’, blinking on the green screen. Raising an eyebrow towards Valrie, she selected the option.</p><p>“Oh, hey! Uh, hi!” It was Moira’s voice. “I’m hoping this worked and it’s Patience listening. If not, sorry, it’s all a misunderstanding. If it is Patience, hello! I’ve been looking through the data I got from your Pip-Boy and you should come see me ... Oh, it’s Moira, by the way. From Craterside Supplies. Moira Brown. Uh, see ya soon! Bye, bye, bye-bye, byeee”</p><p>The message cut off and the radio option ‘Unknown’ winked from the screen as if it had never been there. Patience and Valrie looked at each other, bemused. It was clear that Valrie didn’t know the Pip-Boy could do that and Patience, for certain, didn’t know. Of course, neither of them had much experience with the device. At least, not as far as Patience could remember.</p><p>“I think that was Moira.” She was being sarcastic, but Valrie seemed as impressed as Patience. Before they began to move towards Craterside Supplies, where they had found themselves summoned, Valrie held Patience’s arm. “Don’t think we haven’t stopped talking about how fucking stupid you’re being, by the way.”</p><p>“Oh, I think you’ll find every opportunity to tell me how fucking stupid I am.” Patience winked at Valrie, forcing a reluctant smile from the older woman. “Just make sure it’s not while we’re running away from Super Mutants. I hate distractions.”</p><p>“Right. That’s good. Make it all into a fucking joke. I don’t mind.” Valrie shrugged her shoulders and continued moving. “I swear, you’ll be the fucking death of me!”</p><p>Patience grinned as she followed Valrie up the ramp. She knew, and she appreciated, what Valrie was saying. Moriarty was as slimy a person she could recall meeting. If he said the night was dark, she’d stay awake all night, to be certain. She couldn’t trust him and, by association, neither could Vincent, but they were mere steps on the way to finding who she was and where she came from.</p><p>And, for that, she was more than willing to face a little danger and distrust.</p><p>-+-</p><p>They found Moira, the upper half of her body buried deep into a barrel with a ‘Hazardous Waste’ sticker on it, the bottom half making frantic kicks in the air, with the occasional upside-down jump. It was obvious the young shopkeeper had found herself stuck.</p><p>With more than a little effort, Patience and Valrie managed to extricate Moira, who emerged wearing the thickest of rubber gloves and an ancient gas mask. The lenses for the eyes of the gas mask steamed up and Moira was unable to see her rescuers. In one of her rubber gloved hands, she held a small, empty vial.</p><p>“Hey! Thank you! I would have got out. Eventually.” She removed the gas mask, revealing her face, pouring with sweat, her hair sticking to her forehead. “Don’t worry about the ‘Hazardous Waste’ thing. I’m sure it’s just a precaution. Probably.”</p><p>“That’s why you wore the thick gloves and gas mask, right?” Valrie stepped backwards as Moira stepped forwards. “As a precaution.”</p><p>“Absolutely!” Moira looked around for somewhere to drop the gas mask. Unable to see a bench, she dropped it beside the barrel and forgot about it immediately. She held up the empty vial. “I’m almost one hundred percent certain that this is no longer active. Well, seventy-five percent. No less than sixty percent certain.”</p><p>“I quake in fear at your confidence.” Patience also stepped away from Moira as the young woman passed by towards a work bench at the other side of the shop. Moira smiled, unaware of the thinly veiled joke. “Nice trick with the radio, by the way.”</p><p>“That?” Moira waved her rubber gloved hand. “That was nothing. I just isolated the frequency of the two-way communications in your Pip-Boy, created a non-random interference algorithm, piggy-backed onto the signal and implemented a simplex delivery system. By tomorrow we should have two-way radio between us.”</p><p>“That’s ... that’s brilliant. Is there anything you can’t do?” Moira turned to Patience and gave the question considerable thought.</p><p>“Play musical instruments.” She turned back to the work bench performing a slow, sad shake of the head. “It’s supposed to be just mathematics but I can’t, for the life of me, understand a darned thing about it. Maybe one day.”</p><p>Moira sighed and stared into space for a few seconds before pulling off the rubber gloves and tossing them at her feet. Using, what looked like a long stemmed Q-Tip, Moira swabbed the inside of the small vial, then wiped the swab on a glass slide. With an eye-dropper, she took a small amount of liquid from a test tube, dripped it onto the slide then pressed another glass slide against the first. The sandwiched slide then found its way onto the stage of a microscope.</p><p>“Moira! You said we should come see you. Something about data?” Valrie tried to catch Moira’s attention as the young woman stared into the eyepiece of the microscope. Valrie raised her voice. “Moira! Jebus fucking Christ. Moira!”</p><p>“Hmm?” Moira’s perpetual smile and wide-eyed interest in everything, now focussed, once again on Valrie and Patience. “Oh, yeah. Come with me.”</p><p>Moira picked up the microscope, hesitated, put it down again, hesitated once more and picked it up again. She carried the microscope to the side of the store with the terminal, setting it down at the side. Performing a few taps on the keyboard, slapping the top of the terminal and few more taps, she pointed at the screen.</p><p>“We’re not all fucking geniuses, genius.” Valrie squinted at the screen. “Just tell us what you found.”</p><p>“Well, this, here, this is a bunch of deleted data from Patience’s Pip-Boy. I took a copy of everything. For research purposes, you know.” Moira crouched down and pulled out a box from beneath the terminal’s desk. Reaching in, she pulled out a thick pile of listing paper and started to sift through the continuous, folded stack. She soon stopped, prodding a finger at a spot on the print-out. “And there. Clear as day.”</p><p>“Moira, I know you think you’re making complete sense, but Valrie and me, we don’t have a clue what you mean.” Patience saw Moira struggling with how to explain what she had found, looking from Patience to Valrie and back again. “Take it slow. Explain it like you would to the dumbest person you know.”</p><p>“Umm. Okay.” Moira scratched her head and removed a pencil from the messy bun. She used it to point at the listing paper and then the screen. “It appears several times, a bunch of letters, a mnemonic identifier, where ‘n’ is an integer increasing in value, ‘m’ stands for ‘Modified’ and ‘FEV’ stands for ‘Forced Evolution Virus’. ‘m.FEV.n’. Over and over.”</p><p>“And that’s how you fucking explain something to the dumbest person you know?” Valrie crossed her arms, frowning. “Dumb it down. More.”</p><p>“FEV, Forced Evolution Virus, is what created Super Mutants.” Moira looked at Patience, sadness creeping into her eyes. “I think that’s what might get injected into you at one of those locations in your Pip-Boy. I think it’ll turn you into a Super-Mutant.”</p><p>Patience stumbled backwards, her mind a whirl. She felt sick. Began to retch. The room span as she tried to make sense of what she had heard. Lifting her arm, she stared at the Pip-Boy and then began to claw at it, pulling at the edges, trying to rip the damned thing from her arm. Valrie moved so fast, Patience didn’t even see her. The older woman grabbed Patience in a bear hug, holding her arms to the side and leading her to a chair.</p><p>She couldn’t turn into one of those monsters. She’d kill herself first.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>9</p><p>With Vincent leading the way, they left Megaton early in the morning. Patience spent a fitful night, tossing and turning on the makeshift bed laid out in Moira’s store. Waking up several times during the night, caked with sweat, to see Valrie’s face next to her, her eyes wide open, staring at her in concern.</p><p>The dreams were vivid. The same premise every time. She’d be fighting against Super Mutants, running and firing, only to reach a certain point in the ruins, and her dream, where the Pip-Boy would illicit a loud beeping sound, letters crawling across the screen. ‘Correct location - Initiating infusion’. In the dream, she felt pain. In the dream she watched her fingers swell, followed by her hands and arms, turning a sickly green. She felt her bones crack and stretch, her skin harden, her voice growing thick, deep and guttural. She would turn towards Valrie, several feet taller than the older woman now, and tear her apart with her bare hands.</p><p>She would wake up then, with a start, throwing off her covers, reaching for her sidearm. Then she would lay back down, return to sleep and the process would begin again.</p><p>“Hey! Vacant!” Valrie picked up a stone and threw it at Vincent’s back, causing him to stiffen and snap around.</p><p>“Are you talking to me?” Valrie nodded, a wicked grin on her face. “The name’s Vincent!”</p><p>“That’s what I said. Vacant.” Valrie knew what she was doing this time. The ‘mis-spoken’ word quite deliberate. “How does it feel to know this woman could kick your ass seven ways to Sunday and not break a fucking sweat? What do you think about that?”</p><p>“I don’t feel and I don’t think.” He turned away, twisting his grip on the assault rifle in his hands.</p><p>“Ha! Never a truer word spoken.” Valrie picked up another stone, throwing it at his head this time. “So, when are you going to turn on us? As soon as you get the rat bastard’s information, or are you going to wait until we’re back in the ruins before you shoot us in the back?”</p><p>Vincent spun around again, drawing the assault rifle up, pointing it at Valrie’s face. Valrie remained calm, staring into Vincent’s fierce eyes and then slid those eyes over to the muzzle of Patience’s pistol, pointing at Vincent’s right hand.</p><p>“One more move and I send you back to your boss minus a hand.” Patience didn’t care that Valrie had baited him. It was a test of his character, and he’d failed. “Or, maybe, I blow off your fucking nose. Least then you won’t be able to smell the bullshit coming out of Moriarty’s mouth.”</p><p>The assault rifle remained pointing at Valrie’s face for a few seconds, Vincent adjusting his grip several times. He soon, began to drop the rifle, pointing it at the ground before looking at Patience’s stone cold features. He grunted once, then pointed at Valrie.</p><p>“Keep that loud mouthed bitch off my back!” He blinked and turned his face away under Patience’s withering gaze.</p><p>“I will not.” Almost without passing through the intervening space, Patience’s sidearm moved from pointing at Vincent to nestling in its holster at her hip. “How you’ve survived this long with such a thin skin, I don’t understand. Keep your temper in check. You touch her, you’re dead. She gets hurt when you could have helped, your dead. Basically, you even piss in a way I don’t like, I’ll fucking kill you. Understand?”</p><p>Vincent didn’t answer, resorting to a sullen nod instead, before turning away once more and continuing to walk towards the D.C. ruins. Patience caught Valrie’s eye and wagged an admonishing finger at the older woman. Valrie shrugged and pretended to bend down to pick up another stone, but stopped and grinned at Patience.</p><p>“I still don’t understand.” It was only a few minutes since the altercation, but it was far too much silence for Valrie. “I mean, why not just stay at Megaton. You know that place is safe. Plenty of people around, plenty to do. They need a new sheriff, you know?”</p><p>“I can’t. I won’t.” Patience kept an eye on Vincent, about twenty feet in front. “I’d be a prisoner to something that might never happen. Who’s to say this trigger location is anywhere near here? Or, maybe, it’s just ten feet away from somewhere I’ve already been? I can’t live like that.”</p><p>“You seemed to be plenty worried about it last night.” She wasn’t saying it to be hurtful, Patience knew that. The tone of Valrie’s voice, the way she had watched Patience the night before. She said it because she cared. “What I’m trying to say is, I don’t want to see you turn into a Super Mutant just because you want your memories back. Memories, I might fucking add, that might not even come back if you do get to Vault-Tec HQ, or might come back all on their own anyways.”</p><p>“It’s not just the memories now.” Her voice lowered, became wistful. She glanced at the Pip-Boy on her arm. “I need to know what the hell is going on. If I find out where I come from, maybe I found out why those sick bastards have put this thing on me.”</p><p>She looked towards the ruins of Washington D.C.. The buildings bent, broken and misshapen like rows of brittle, fractured teeth. A dull haze hung in the air over the city. Not a cloud, but an insubstantial gauze, filtering the worst of the sun’s rays, causing fingers of light to reach out to the ruins. As if to hold out a helping hand to pull the city back to its feet. But the city remained forlorn and flailed of any hope.</p><p>Vincent stopped, taking his bearings, using the sight on his rifle to mark out the landmarks. Satisfied, he began to step down a mound of rubble, heading south-east. Patience didn’t trust him. Couldn’t trust him. Valrie was correct, if far too direct. The man had orders to take them down as soon as they completed his part of the mission. She was certain of that.</p><p>It remained for her to decide if she killed him first, or not, as soon as the Vault-Tec HQ was in sight. And the worst part was, she had no qualms about taking the man’s life. None. In her mind, her subconscious mind, it was a pure tactical necessity. Emotion played no part in the decision and she wondered what kind of a person she used to be that could think of killing a man so coldly.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“Three Dog here, with another update on the supply of beautiful, beautiful purified water.</p><p>There are those folks, out in the Wasteland, that are only just starting to gain the benefits of the life-giving liquid. No longer having to search for and boil down water found out there. Supply lines are stretching.</p><p>And there are other folks who are taking advantage of the situation. Some raiders have taken it upon themselves to hijack the water caravans. These ‘people’ are low. The lowest of the low.</p><p>Here’s the thing, raider assholes, the water is free! Gratis! No payment required!</p><p>Let the water flow! Let the people have their fill!</p><p>And to anybody paying these assholes for the water they steal, do yourself and everyone else a favour, go to the caravans, help them out and get your water from them. They want to give you the water. Let them! If there’s no market for the water, it won’t be stolen. Even raiders aren’t dumb enough to put their lives at risk if there’s no profit in it.</p><p>Stay safe, children. Help the water caravans and don’t let asshole raiders take advantage of you.</p><p>This is Three Dog, keeping an eye out for all the good people out there.”</p><p>-+-<br/>The river flowed a sluggish trail through the area, a natural barrier between downtown D.C. ruins and the rest of the Capital Wasteland. Patience calculated that the river stretched over a thousand feet in width at this point. Too far to swim.</p><p>Upon reaching the river, Vincent turned the party south-east, following the bank, his eyes watching both sides. Several times, he brought them to a halt as he spied raiders on the northern bank and, once, a large party of Super Mutants exiting a building, dragging several humans along.</p><p>Patience’s gut wrenched as she stopped herself from firing across the river. The idea of allowing the Super Mutants to take the humans, and do god knows what to them, almost made her choke with bile. It wasn’t right. Every fibre of her being wanted to somehow find a way across and slaughter every last one of the Super Mutants.</p><p>“They’re already dead. Or worse.” Vincent noticed Patience’s dilemma. He remained calm as the Super Mutants disappeared into the ruins, the shouts and screams of the humans deadening, becoming dull and then growing silent. “Pick your battles, vault dweller.”</p><p>“Oh, she’s already got one battle picked out ready.” Valrie continued pushing Vincent’s buttons.</p><p>“Don’t torment the puppy, Valrie, it might snap and then I’ll have to swat its nose.” It helped to lighten her mood, but trifling with Vincent could work against them.</p><p>“You know what, fuck you! Both of you!” Vincent almost jumped to his feet, the Super Mutants now out of sight. “You don’t know a fucking thing about me.”</p><p>He strode away, head down, shoulders tense and hunched. Beside Patience, Valrie let out a cackling laugh. It didn’t appear that the older woman was about to give Moriarty’s bodyguard a moment’s respite. As far as Patience could tell, if Valrie couldn’t spit in the face of Moriarty, then his agent would do as well.</p><p>She couldn’t find it in herself to feel any sympathy for the man. He had, after all, chosen to ally himself with Moriarty, a man that Patience forged an instant dislike and distrust towards. The only reason she allowed the man to come with them was due to necessity. He, through Moriarty, knew how to get to Vault-Tec HQ. She did not. It was a simple as that.</p><p>For, she guessed, the hundredth time, she considered what Valrie had said, before. It would be so easy to switch off. To settle down in Megaton, or as a bodyguard for Valrie on her trading route. It would be so easy to put aside her need to find answers. At least, that’s what she thought to herself. The reality was, she could no more ignore the questions in her mind than she could stop breathing.</p><p>Vincent crouched, bringing them to a halt once more. Using military hand signals, he told them to observe beyond a broken down piece of wall. Patience kept low and hunched against the wall, taking a second, then glancing around the side.</p><p>She saw a wharf at the side of the river, built to take two or three small river boats. Pilings, set into the concrete of the dock, lined the edge, ready for boats to tie off to. On the inland side of the wharf, several tables and chairs sat, some with umbrellas, and, at the far end, a small hut stood alone and apart. The hut, large enough for, at most, three people, appeared well maintained. Brightly painted with a red and white striped awning protruding from beneath the roof. It all seemed so unreal. So mundane. Like a picture postcard of a time long gone.</p><p>“I go first, follow in single line, keep your weapons down.” Vincent spun his assault rifle behind his back and stood up, walking around the broken wall, towards the wharf.</p><p>Valrie raised an eyebrow to Patience and Patience could do nothing but shrug. She stood, rested her assault rifle onto her chest (keeping her finger near the trigger guard), and followed Vincent around the wall. Valrie, reluctant at first, followed.</p><p>As they approached the wharf, Patience noticed the slightest movement in one of the windows. Vincent raised his hands, palms outwards, showing his intentions. Patience didn’t. She didn’t like the situation. They were now out in the open, without cover anywhere close enough to scramble to. The water to their left would hold no escape. Her eyes twitched this way and that, and she took care to shield Valrie the best she could.</p><p>“Who’s that? Don’t come any closer. ‘Less you want buckshot in your ass.” A woman’s voice, shouting from within the hut. Now they were closer, Patience saw the muzzle of a shotgun edging through a hole in the hut wall.</p><p>“You know damn well who it is.” Vincent sounded as if he was smiling, though Patience couldn’t see. “Come on out or shoot me.”</p><p>“You know this woman, Vacant?” Valrie edged around Patience to get a better look.</p><p>“Yeah, I know her.” He began to lower his arms, stepping closer to the hut.</p><p>“Who’s them others you got with you?” The shotgun didn’t move, but it didn’t follow Vincent as he stepped forward, it remained pointing at Patience. “I don’t like the look of ‘em. Especially that one with the gun.”</p><p>“They’re with me. They’re ... clients.” There was silence for a few seconds before the shotgun slid back into the hut and the sound of bolts pulling back.</p><p>After a while, the door of the hut opened, slow and steady, and the shotgun emerged long before the person holding it. The woman, close to her seventies, if not older, stepped out, her grey/white hair cropped short, dark brown dungarees over a patchy pair of long johns. She appeared healthy, tight, tanned skin upon her face, with sharp, high cheekbones highlighting deep brown eyes.</p><p>“Grandma Sparkles! This is Patience, she’s a vault dweller, and that other one is Valrie, she’s an asshole. They’re on Mister Moriarty business.” Vincent seemed genuinely pleased to see the woman, Grandma Sparkles. He turned to Patience and Valrie. “This is Grandma Sparkles.”</p><p>“I don’t take no truck with son-of-a-bitch Moriarty.” Almost reluctant, Grandma Sparkles lowered her shotgun. “Vincent’s a good boy. Don’t need to be working with that son-of-a-bitch.”</p><p>“We don’t work for Moriarty.” Patience held out her hand to shake, but Grandma Sparkles only looked at it, like it was something dirty. “It’s just a one-time business deal.”</p><p>“I don’t give a shit.” Grandma Sparkles lowered her shotgun and pinched Vincent’s cheek. “Ice cream, Vinnie?”</p><p>“I fucking love her!” Valrie whispered to Patience.</p><p>So did Patience. She looked at the old woman, cuddling and mothering Vincent and wondered if she knew what Vincent was like, or whether Patience, herself, had misjudged the man.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Vincent seemed like a different person around Grandma Sparkles. Humble, respectful and smiling. Patience couldn’t believe the change in the man that had shown nothing but a gruff, hard and angry personality up to now.</p><p>They sat, relaxed and carefree, on the seats outside the hut, eating ice cream and chatting. It seemed normal. The most normal interaction that Patience had found herself involved in since the moment that Valrie found her. It could have been a public holiday in the World-that-was, instead of a tense, furtive meeting in the surroundings of ruined buildings and under the possibility of attack at any time.</p><p>“How’s the ice cream? I make it myself and if you don’t like it, you can go fuck yourself.” Grandma Sparkles sat back in her seat, legs akimbo, shotgun resting on her thighs.</p><p>“I never tasted anything like it.” Valrie was demolishing her second bowl and stared at everyone else’s bowl like a feral dog staring at a cornered rabbit. “How the fuck have I never tasted this before?”</p><p>“I reckon I’m the only one that makes it. Leastways, these days.” Grandma Sparkles reached out an absent-minded hand and stroked Vincent’s hair, causing the rough, tough bodyguard to blush and hunch his shoulders, a little smile on his face.</p><p>“Well, I have to say, it’s strange to see Vincent like this.” Patience pushed her bowl away. The ice cream had a strange metallic taste to her. “We’ve only known him a day or so. You seem very proud of your grandson.”</p><p>“Vinnie ain’t my grandson.” Grandma Sparkles didn’t like Patience and made it clear with every intonation in her voice, every guarded stare. “My boys never had kids. No, Vinnie damn near saved my life a while back. God damned asshole raiders tried to rob me. Vinnie appeared out of nowhere and kicked their asses, and by ‘kicked their asses’ I mean shot the shit out of them. He stayed to protect me for weeks after that. He’s a good boy.”</p><p>Grandma Sparkles stared at Patience, daring her to say anything against Vincent.</p><p>“Maybe you should teach Vac ... uh ... Vincent to choose a better fucking employer.” Valrie raised her eyebrow towards Patience and nodded at the bowl of unfinished ice cream. Taking Patience’s eye-roll as a ‘yes’, she pulled the bowl towards herself. “The guy he’s working for is the biggest ass licker in the Wasteland. An evil piece of shit and, I’m sure, has ordered ‘Vinnie’ here to kill us first chance he fucking gets.”</p><p>Vincent’s coy, child-like smile disappeared. His hand slipped to the butt of the .45 on his hip. Patience was faster, though, and had her sidearm out and pointed at him before he could blink. The pleasing, relaxed atmosphere had soon descended into a tense stand-off. What Patience hadn’t expected was the shotgun being pointed at her by Grandma Sparkles.</p><p>Patience calculated she could shoot Vincent and move at the same time, avoiding the worst of the buck shot, but Grandma Sparkles shifted the barrel of the shot gun, pointing it at Valrie. Valrie froze, ice cream filled spoon half-way to her open mouth. The older woman glanced at Patience. There was no way she’d be able to avoid the buck shot.</p><p>“What say we all take our hands off our damn weapons and get back to talking like civilised folk?” Grandma Sparkles looked at both Patience and Vincent. “Vinnie, you move to break the peace again and I’ll slap you so damned hard, your real grandma will feel it. Rest her soul.”</p><p>Vincent removed his hand from the butt of his pistol and glowered at Valrie. Patience, keeping her eyes on Grandma Sparkles, slowly replaced her sidearm to its holster, folding her arms. Grandma Sparkles returned the shotgun to rest upon her thighs and Valrie allowed the spoon of ice cream to finally reach her mouth.</p><p>“Three fucking women at a table of four and there’s still more testosterone flying around than a fucking football locker room!” Valrie used her spoon to make a point, waggling it in the air. “This is why I fucking hate guns. You have one, you always gonna want to use it instead of fucking talking.”</p><p>“You got that damned right.” Grandma Sparkles lifted a foot on to the table and pushed her seat back on to two legs, balancing between falling either way. “Vinnie here does his job and, yeah, he has control issues. Don’t look at me like that! You know you do.”</p><p>Vincent dropped his eyes as Grandma Sparkles admonished him. Patience almost laughed at the reaction Grandma Sparkles elicited from the man. He was a killer, a dangerous killer, but under the reproachful gaze of the old woman, he became akin to a child.</p><p>“So, Vinnie works for, what did you call him? An evil piece of shit? An ass licker?” Grandma Sparkles frowned the question to Valrie. Valrie, mouth full of spoon and ice cream, nodded. “So, Vinnie works for this piece of shit and that makes you think he’ll kill you? You don’t know my Vinnie. Oh, don’t get me wrong, he ain’t no Boy Scout, but you listen to me, he don’t kill people for nothing.”</p><p>Vincent looked away, avoiding the eyes of Grandma Sparkles, and that told Patience everything she needed to know. That look made it obvious that he had been ordered to kill them. But there was something else in that look, too. A shame. He had orders, but the orders made him feel ashamed and that made Patience hope that they could get through this without trying to kill each other.</p><p>Moriarty had, Patience was certain now, given the order. Whenever it was supposed to go down was irrelevant. The fact that the order had been given was enough. If she survived this, there would have to be a reckoning with Colin Moriarty. Vincent, however, was a more complicated matter. She needed to try and get him to disobey the order. Yet, was Vincent a mere ‘Yes-man’, only capable of following orders blindly, or did he have a bit more meat to his morality? That remained to be seen.</p><p>“Who wants more ice cream?” Grandma Sparkles stood up, cradling the shot gun in the crook of her arm.</p><p>“Oh, god! Fuck yeah!” Valrie almost made it sound sexual, rolling her eyes and holding out the bowl to Grandma Sparkles, like a starving beggar.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>10</p><p>Vincent left Wilhelm’s Wharf with a package filled with food, a pair of gloves (because he looked cold), a loving peck on the cheek and ruffled hair. Patience and Valrie left the Wharf under the cold eyes of Grandma Sparkles with the shotgun pointed in their rough direction.</p><p>As soon as they left sight of Grandma Sparkles’ hut, Vincent’s dogged and gruff demeanour returned. But he wore the gloves.</p><p>“We cross at the Anchorage Memorial then turn back north, up the river.” He pointed to the structure settled in the centre of the river, not a hundred yards away. “Watch out for Mire Lurks.”</p><p>“Mire Lurks?” Patience raised an eyebrow towards Valrie.</p><p>“Big fucking crab things. Hard as hell to kill, unless you hit them in the eye.” Valrie pressed a finger at the point between her eyes. “Never seen one myself. Don’t fucking want to either.”</p><p>Vincent approached the memorial with his assault rifle at the ready, using it to search the way ahead.</p><p>Patience recognised the Anchorage Memorial, erected in honour of those fallen in battle against the Red Chinese in the icy wastes of Alaska, though she didn’t know how she recognised it. Like many things in her fractured memory, it was there, but felt like something remembered by someone else.</p><p>The memorial itself, a high plinth carrying three triumphant, brave soldiers, sat in the centre of the island, surrounded by dead, barren trees, trash cans and dilapidated seats. It was different from the bubbling memory she had, smaller, somehow. And also more decorated. Grisly, foul decorations.</p><p>Each of the statues of the soldiers had bodies dangling from them. Parts of bodies, at least. Some without arms, or legs, others without heads. Trussed up by chains and hooks and hung in stomach churning fashion and, upon the base of the plinth, the words “Kinndum of Supper Muttants” were written. Large letters written in blood. Patience edged towards the plinth, touching the bloody words. Congealed, almost dry. Only a few hours old.</p><p>“Patience!” Valrie had wandered to the northern side of the island, away from carnage on display at the monument. She leaned against the parapet, staring down. “Something you should see.”</p><p>Patience, followed by Vincent, crept towards the edge of the island, weapons at the ready, making slow, careful steps. What they saw appeared to be the sight of a battle. Bodies littered the ground. Some, hulking things with what appeared to be hard carapaces on their backs, she assumed were Mire Lurks. Others appeared robot-like. If she couldn’t see the blood pooling around those bodies, she would have sworn they were robots. And the rest she knew well. Super Mutants.</p><p>“Looks like a three-way and no-one came out on top.” Vincent hopped over the parapet, sliding down the side of the island. Coming to a halt, he raised his rifle again and edged toward the bodies.</p><p>Following Vincent, Patience scrambled down the side of the island onto the dried out section of the river bed, moving her weapon from one body to the other, making sure all were dead. When she was certain, she began searching the bodies. Several Super Mutants had assault rifles, but none were in better condition than the one she had. She took the ammunition though, bolstering her supplies. She picked up one rifle and shook it in Valrie’s direction.</p><p>“Nope. Still don’t want no fucking gun, thank you very much.” Valrie had joined them, putting her hands deep in her pockets, hammering home her refusal of the gun. “And I don’t want to get no closer to them, neither.”</p><p>Exhausting the Super Mutants, she moved on to the robot-like bodies. Vincent had already found some .45 clips, which he duly liberated and Patience found a strange looking shotgun. It looked like a semi-automatic with a large, barrel-like magazine attached. She took out the magazine and checked the contents. Still plenty of shells within and, in a utility belt around the body’s waist, she found a pouch filled with more shells. She transferred those to her pack and slip tied the shotgun to the pack.</p><p>“What are these things?” Patience turned one of the robot-like bodies over, with some effort, saw a symbol painted on the chest plate and the bloodied face of a young woman through the cracked and broken helmet. “They’re humans?”</p><p>“Brotherhood of Steel. Self-righteous cock suckers.” Vincent didn’t sound impressed, kicking over the body nearest to him, bullet holes puckering the chest plate. “Looks like they got their asses handed to them.”</p><p>“What is this? Armour?” Patience checked the joints but couldn’t see how each piece attached to the other. Not that she wanted to take any of it. It looked bulky and she knew, only by instinct, not memory, that agility was one of her strengths. “How did they get in and out of it? Is it permanently attached to them?”</p><p>“You never seen power armour before?” Vincent reached down to the body nearest to him, searching for something. They heard a click, a hiss and the body armour broke apart at invisible seams, flowering outwards to reveal the body within. “Useful stuff, but you need training to use it. Try putting some on without training first and you’ll end up breaking your back, or dying.”</p><p>Patience looked at the partial face of the woman in the power armour near her. So young, yet already dead in some pointless battle. For what? Territory? Water? Patience couldn’t tell, there was nothing in sight to show what they had been fighting about.</p><p>“God damn! I wish I had my pack brahmins!” Valrie had forgotten her earlier distaste and had rushed over to the opened power armour. “I could make enough caps to retire on with these power suits. Help me hide them somewhere.”</p><p>“No! We move on.” Vincent had already begun walking northwards. “Scavenge on your own time. We have a job to do.”</p><p>“Fuck you, Vacant! This is my fucking job!” Valrie squared up to Vincent, even though the bodyguard towered above by almost two feet. “My job ain’t fucking killing people for ass-licking bastards like Moriarty!”</p><p>Patience closed the gap, dragging Valrie away from Vincent before things became ugly. Vincent, for his part, remained more calm than she expected, setting his jaw and gripping his assault rifle tight, but nothing more.</p><p>“We don’t have time, Valrie.” Patience turned Valrie around to look at her. “If these power suits are as expensive as you say, this Brotherhood of Steel won’t want them going to waste out here and I’m sure more Super Mutants will be on the way, too. We don’t want to get caught between that.”</p><p>Valrie shrugged Patience’s hands away, adjusted her football helmet and spat in the direction of Vincent. She said nothing more, though, and Patience was glad of that. They needed to keep moving. To head further into the city ruins and find the Vault-Tec headquarters. Tussling between themselves would help nothing.</p><p>With one last glare at Vincent and a long, mournful look at the power armour, Valrie began to move northwards in the direction Vincent had started heading. Patience gave Vincent a questioning look, but he turned away, raising his rifle and tracking the area ahead.</p><p>Patience sighed. The last thing she needed was two bickering children. Especially not when one of them carried deadly weapons. She didn’t want to kill Vincent unless she had to and, especially not before reaching their destination.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“Good news coming in from the Republic of Dave, uh, I mean the Republic of Shawna!</p><p>Apparently, good sense was found by someone, whose name I will not mention, and the planned annexation of Old Olney has been put on permanent hiatus.</p><p>Word is that the ‘General’ in charge of the expedition saw a huge gathering of Deathclaws as soon as they entered the ruins and said, and this is not a direct quote, “Screw that!”.</p><p>It’s good to see that common sense won out over dumbassery.</p><p>Stay in the Republic, Shawna. Build on your own community before casting your eye on areas you simply cannot capture, for little gain. Your citizens will appreciate it.</p><p>Three Dog has all the best advice. Listen to Three Dog!”</p><p>-+-</p><p>They continued northwards, hugging the outskirts of the derelict remains of the city. Patience found that she had little memory of the place. Nothing seemed familiar, not helped by the fact that few buildings remained untouched by the devastation that the nuclear war had wrought upon them.</p><p>Some buildings were only shells of their past glories. The insides collapsed and dangerous. Others had entire faces torn from the rest of the building, leaving the buildings looking like they suffered vast, gaping wounds. Concrete and steel skeletons with wood, concrete and metal organs on show and festering. Still others were mere mounds of rubble with little to show of the structure that had once stood in its place.</p><p>Further up the northern side of the river, they past a gathering of Mire Lurks. Patience marvelled at the creatures. Large, bulky things with thick shells upon their backs, deadly looking pincers and single eyes, hooded beneath the outer edge of the shell. The Mire Lurks saw them, but only watched as the party passed by them. Too much distance between them to be of any bother. Still, Vincent trained his rifle in that direction until the creatures dwindled into the distance.</p><p>“Do you think we’re going the right way?” Patience hung back from Vincent, watching him as she spoke to Valrie. “I just can’t find it in myself to trust him.”</p><p>“I have no fucking idea. Most I’ve seen of the D.C. ruins is down to Rivet City, in the south.” Valrie nodded towards Vincent. “As far as he’s concerned, it’s not him I don’t trust. It’s the rat bastard that employs him. Until he proves different, I see Vacant as just an extension of the Irish fucker.”</p><p>“Vincent!” The bodyguard turned, almost with a sigh, as if he expected more insults and rebukes, raising his eyebrows in questioning fashion. “We go much further north, we’ll be heading out of the city altogether. Isn’t there a more direct route.”</p><p>“Sure, if you don’t mind wading through a shit-ton of Super Mutants, tangling with remnants of Enclave soldiers in electrified power armour, fire-breathing giant ants, having to crawl through Metro tunnels to climb into more Metro tunnels, through flooded service tunnels, into yet more Metro tunnels to get to another above ground section filled with more Super Mutants ...” He raised his hand to offer to continue. Neither Patience or Valrie said anything, so he dropped his hand and slung his rifle onto his shoulder. “Look, this way we only have to pass through two Metro tunnels and we’re far away from the worst of the shit in Downtown. So, yeah, there’s a more direct route, it’s just shit.”</p><p>He waited for a few seconds and, when he met no response from Patience or Valrie, returned his rifle to both hands and carried on walking north. Patience and Valrie exchanged glances.</p><p>“A simple yes or fucking no would have been fine.” Valrie shrugged and set off after Vincent, her eyes making constant sweeps of her surroundings, searching for salvageable materials.</p><p>Before moving, Patience caught a glimpse of something in the distance, back the way they had travelled. A glint of sunlight on a piece of metal. She raised her rifle, staring down the sights to get a clearer look. It looked like a metal ball, bobbing and weaving in the air, several metal antenna thrusting out from its rear casing. A robot of some kind. It didn’t seem to be moving in any one direction, snaking from one direction to another, then another.</p><p>She dropped the muzzle of the rifle. She considered that it wasn’t anything important. Only a malfunctioning robot wandering around. Still, she decided to keep an eye over her shoulder every so often, just in case.</p><p>After a while of travelling north, Vincent took an almost ninety degree turn, heading east, following a wide section of broken up road. Many burned out cars and trucks littered the highway, causing difficulty in walking in a straight line, forcing them to zig-zag between vehicles. Here and there, Patience caught sight of burned bodies. By the look of their clothing, these were post-war deaths, though what had caused the fiery demises, Patience couldn’t tell.</p><p>They were about to turn around the edge of a large, burned out truck, when Vincent brought the to a halt, indicating they take cover. With his hands, he urged Patience forward and to look around the truck. She saw a poorly constructed barrier, stretching from one side of the highway to the other, made from rusting, pointed girders, barbed wire and vehicle piled atop each other. She also saw a fire-pit, belching out flames and smoke. The way was closed.</p><p>Vincent pointed to the opposite side of the highway, where a ramp led up towards another, smaller road, and then pointed to a dilapidated concrete bridge, beyond the barrier. Patience glanced at the ramp and the bridge, but something had caught her eye beyond the barrier.</p><p>“Valrie, your half-binoculars, please.” Without looking at Valrie, she held out her hand. After a few seconds, she felt the broken binoculars placed into her palm.</p><p>Tapping Vincent on the shoulder, she swapped places with him, raising the binoculars up to her eye and surveying the barrier and beyond. There, she saw what she had caught the tiniest glimpse of. Several people, kneeling on the ground, their hands tied behind their backs, their heads bowed and then, from out of sight, Patience saw something move in front of the bound people. A Super Mutant.</p><p>“There are people there. A Super Mutant has them captive.” Patience handed the binoculars to Vincent, but he passed them back to Valrie. Patience furrowed her brow. “Aren’t you going to look?”</p><p>“It’s not our problem.” Vincent used his rifle to survey the ramp on the other side.</p><p>“Not our problem? There are people there! Tied up!” Patience pushed down the muzzle of Vincent’s rifle. “We need to help them.”</p><p>“Aww, shit. Not again.” Valrie slapped the top of her football helmet, then adjusted it once again.</p><p>“Yeah. Not our problem. It’s outside mission parameters.” Vincent pointed towards the ramp. “We take the ramp, circle around and bypass the barrier. We stay on mission.”</p><p>“Fuck the mission and fuck you!” Patience popped the magazine on her rifle, checked the ammo then clicked it back into place. She flipped the RoF switch to ‘Auto’ and glared at Vincent. “I’m going to help those people. You stay here and wait for your boss to tell you what you can and can’t do!”</p><p>Fuming, Patience eased her rifle around the edge of the truck and began crouch walking to the next piece of cover. She only hoped that there was only one Super Mutant to contend with.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Using stealth, Patience moved from cover to cover. Vehicle to vehicle. Stopping, every so often, to survey the route ahead. The closer she came to the barrier, the more her stomach rolled. The last time she had come into contact with Super Mutants had not gone well, despite what the man on the radio, Three Dog, had reported. If the ‘King’ hadn’t walked away, for whatever reason he had, both her and Valrie would be dead or captured like the people beyond the barrier.</p><p>Thinking of the radio, she checked her Pip-Boy to ensure it was off. The last thing she needed was the thing to make a noise while creeping into enemy territory. She found herself distracted, though, flicking through the options while watching the way ahead. By accident, she clicked on to the option ‘VATS’ and her attention returned to the device on her arm.</p><p>The screen blinked. The words, ‘VATS activated’, appeared and she found she couldn’t switch off the Pip-Boy at all. Frustrated, she stopped herself from slapping the device. It was too late now. One of the prisoners had caught sight of her. Hopeful, pleading eyes begging for help. If the Super Mutant saw that look and tried to see where the prisoner aimed that look, she’d never run fast enough.</p><p>Steeling herself, she crept ever closer, reaching the barrier, placing her back against one of the great, rusted girders. A quick glance around the girder showed that the Super Mutant had moved away from the prisoners to the flaming fire-pit and that the prisoner had whispered to the others of Patience’s presence.</p><p>She saw several places she could sneak behind. Barrels. Over-turned vehicles. There was even a marquee tent, tattered and filthy, but good cover if she could reach it. It was also clear, now, that the Super Mutant was alone. A single guard while the others did who-knows-what elsewhere, Patience presumed. Taking a couple of deep breaths, she moved in.</p><p>The prisoners were only twenty feet away, now, and Patience counted four of them. Another one laid, rag-doll like, a few feet away. They didn’t move at all. Dead, she mused. The other four looked at her with excitement, twisting and fighting against the ropes tied around their wrists and legs. She put a finger to her mouth, urging them to silence, as she slipped behind a set of rusted, battered barrels.</p><p>She had a better look at the fire-pit now and found herself horrified at the sight. The Super Mutants had hung another prisoner above the fire-pit, tied, spread-eagled and face down. Low enough for the heat to burn the flesh, but high enough that the torture would last longer. The hanging prisoner still moved, still alive, his flesh and remaining clothing burnt black. Patience retched at the sight.</p><p>There was no time for sentimentalities. The Super Mutant could turn back at any moment. Taking a circuitous route around an upside-down car, she made it behind the prisoners. Taking the knife she had liberated from the raider at Girdershade, she began cutting the ropes of the first prisoner. The knife was sharp and sliced through the first prisoner’s rope with ease. She held a hand on his shoulder.</p><p>“Don’t run yet. Wait until I’ve freed the others or you’ll call attention to us all.” The man seemed terrified, but he stayed still, waiting for Patience’s go-ahead. She moved to the next prisoner.</p><p>“Human!” It was too late. The Super Mutant had grown bored the entertainment of a man burning alive gave. It had seen Patience. “King’s prisoners! Not human’s prisoners!”</p><p>“Free the others!” Patience thrust the knife into the hands of the prisoner she had freed. “I’ll buy you some time.”</p><p>Almost sighing, she stood, resigned to whatever fate she had brought upon herself. Knowing that she had done the right thing. The Super Mutant was running towards her, his long, big legs carrying him fast. Patience raised the assault rifle and prepared to empty the magazine into the creature.</p><p>Then something strange happened. A bright, pin-point red light flashed out from the edge of her Pip-Boy, sending pulsing light beams in lines from the head of the Super Mutant to its toes in a fraction of a fraction of a second. The light disappeared replaced by a green light tracing several circles on the Super Mutant’s body with one, on the neck of the creature, pulsing an urgent message.</p><p>She didn’t know why, but she trusted this phenomenon, training the rifle towards that pulsing green circle, and fired. The butt of the rifle kicked into her shoulder, like several baseballs striking her, one after the other, fired from a practice machine. The sound of the mini explosions of gunfire cracked into her skull, reverberating as bullets spat out at supersonic speeds towards that pulsing green target.</p><p>The bullets ripped into the Super Mutant, tearing its tough flesh from its neck, sending gouts of ichor-like blood spraying into the air. It howled in pain and rage, grasping at its throat, the blood spurting from between the creature’s thick fingers. It didn’t die straight away. It’s eyes widened and it tried to continue running towards Patience.</p><p>The pulsing circle on the Super Mutants body changed, moving to a knee-cap. Again, Patience trusted the green light emitted from her Pip-Boy, targeting the monster’s knee-cap and letting fly with another burst of gunfire. The bullets slammed into the knee-cap, ripping in to flesh and bone. The Super Mutant collapsed on to the ground, tried to push itself up, but the blood from its neck wound was beginning to falter. The flow stopping. The Super Mutant dropped its head to the ground.</p><p>Patience couldn’t catch her breath. She had done it. Killed the monster. She looked for the prisoners to see them all racing away through the gap in the barrier. She didn’t need thanks. She was just happy to have helped them.</p><p>“Human kill Super Mutant. Super Mutant kill human!” The marquee! It hadn’t been empty and she, like a fool, hadn’t checked it. The blow caught her on her chin sending her spinning through the air.</p><p>If she hadn’t turned her head at the last second, the strike would have taken off her head. She crashed into one of the girders of the barrier, her skin torn by the barb wire twisted around it, and fell to the dusty ground. Her head was in a haze, but she still tried to lift the assault rifle towards her surprise attacker.</p><p>It was too late. With amazing speed, the Super Mutant had covered the gap between them, swatting the rifle out of her hands and grabbing her by the throat. She felt herself lifted, her feet dangling in the air. She couldn’t breathe. Clutching and grasping at the huge arm that held her. She could smell rotting meat. Hear a gurgling, cruel laugh.</p><p>She was beginning to black out, unable to find the air for her body. A last resort. She reached down to her hip, taking out her sidearm. Using her other hand, she reached forward, scratching at the Super Mutants face, memorising where it was, then pressed the pistol towards that point and fired, and fired, and fired.</p><p>As she lost consciousness she knew only one thing. She may not have survived, but she had helped. She could die happy knowing that others would now live instead of being prisoners of the Super Mutants, or killed by them.</p><p>She could die happy.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>11</p><p>Patience bolted upright, gasping for breath, clutching at the first things she saw. Valrie and Vincent hovered over her, reaching out to hold her down, to calm her. Everything was so bright, so clear. Even the ever present dirty haze in the air seemed brighter. Each and every particle floating around, drifting and falling fell into sharp focus. Her heart beat as if it were about to explode from her chest.</p><p>“My spleen tastes yellow!” She stared into Valrie’s face almost as if she didn’t recognise her. Patience grabbed the front of Valrie’s many pocketed coat, pulling her forward. “I don’t like it!”</p><p>“Jesus! Has she never had a StimPak before?” Vincent frowned at Valrie even as Patience’s head wobbled as she turned to stare at him.</p><p>“How the fuck do I know? I’ve known her about a week.” Valrie eased Patience’s fingers open, releasing her coat, pushing the hand down, gently.</p><p>“I never had a pet moose!” Patience began pushing her legs against the ground, trying to scramble backwards. “Never! They eat too many diamonds.”</p><p>“Alright. Alright, Patience. Relax.” Holding her hands open, trying to calm Patience, Valrie edged forward, maintaining a calm, soothing voice. “We need to get you out of here before more Super Mutants arrive.”</p><p>Valrie and Vincent picked up Patience by her arms, lifting her as she shot confused looks at them both. Patience allowed them to lift her. She knew it was the right thing to do. She looked down at the massive yellow creature at their feet. One side of its head a bloody mess, the eye socket empty with blood oozing down to the ground.</p><p>She could feel her mind clearing. The intense fire, as if all her neurones had flared at the same time, was fading along with her visual clarity. She felt strong, though. Powerful. Pushing Valrie and Vincent away, she began walking without their aid until a memory flashed through her mind.</p><p>“The prisoners!” She tried to turn back, but the others continued to lead her away. “I was supposed to free the prisoners.”</p><p>“You did, you crazy fuck.” Despite the language, Valrie looked up at Patience with admiration. “You got them. They ran away. I don’t fucking blame them, if I’m honest, but you got them out.”</p><p>“The other? There was one being tortured over the fire.” Patience’s brow creased as she twisted in the grips of her two companions. “I can’t let him suffer.”</p><p>“I took care of it.” She didn’t have to ask what Vincent meant with his muttered growl. She knew. It was what she would have done. The human thing.</p><p>Leaving the girder and barb wire barrier behind, they moved up the ramp at the side of the highway and travelled parallel to the Super Mutant camp. Patience looked down into the camp, seeing the two Super Mutant bodies, her memory of the events returning fast and clear.</p><p>She had thought the second Super Mutant had got her. The massive hand gripping her throat as she poured bullets into its brain. When everything went black, she thought that was it, but here she was, as if nothing had happened. She felt her throat, expecting to find indentations where the Super Mutant’s fat fingers had gripped her.</p><p>“Those bruises will be gone soon, thanks to that StimPak Vincent gave for you.” Valrie held out her hands, holding Patience’s knife and sidearm. “The prisoners dropped the knife when the fuckers ran. I thought you’d want them back. I’d have kept them and sold them if you’d died. Of course.”</p><p>“Of course. What’s a ‘StimPak’?” She took the knife and pistol, returning them to their respective places. She lifted the assault rifle, still dangling across her chest, and checked it for damage. It was fine. An amateurish design, but well made.</p><p>“You’re not a soldier, are you?” Vincent continued keeping an eye on their surroundings, watching for more Super Mutants. “I thought you were, at first. You’ve got skills. I thought, being from one of those Vaults, you were a soldier in the World-That-Was, put on ice, you know. But you’re not. No scars that I can see. Don’t know what a StimPak is.”</p><p>“I lost my memory. Maybe I used to know what one was before.” The feeling of her rifle back in her hands made Patience relax. It felt comfortable. It felt right.”</p><p>“I don’t think so. Soldiers took them even when they weren’t injured. Build a tolerance to the effects.” Vincent paused from scouting ahead with his eyes and looked direct towards Patience. “The way you reacted, you’ve never taken a StimPak before. So, not a soldier.”</p><p>“If I’m not a soldier, what do you think I am?” She wept her rifle muzzle around a blind corner as she spoke, maintaining her alertness. She had to admit, after the first, initial reaction to the StimPak, she felt great. Better than ever.</p><p>“I don’t know.” She caught Vincent looking back towards the Super Mutant camp, then he dropped his eyes as he noticed her looking. “Something new. Something dangerous.”</p><p>“You’re damn fucking right she’s dangerous!” Valrie had remained silent, which was, Patience thought, remarkable, but she joined in now. “She just fucked up two Super Mutants. Alone! Anyone else’s neck would have snapped in that yellow fucker’s hand. Not our Patience. No sirree.”</p><p>Patience didn’t know if that were true. She had almost died. That didn’t seem too dangerous to her. Also, she had help. Unexpected help. She turned her arm over and looked at the screen of the Pip-Boy, still flashing ‘VATS activated’. She scrolled through the options and managed to switch it off, turning the radio back on again, set at low volume. She’d become used to the constant flow of music and talk.</p><p>They reached a bridge, crossing the highway below, to another section of ruined buildings. Vincent brought them to a halt as he scanned every nook and cranny, every door and window. It was clear he considered the area a hot spot.</p><p>“We cross here, make our way to that side street.” He used his whole hand to point to the street he meant. “From there, things become difficult. Too many alleys and houses. Keep your eyes and ears open. Shoot first, cry later. Once we’re through there, that’s when shit gets really hard.”</p><p>“Why, what’s after that?” Patience kept her rifle trained across the bridge.</p><p>“Then we go underground.” He almost looked apologetic and Patience frowned, questioning, towards Valrie.</p><p>“Fucking underground.” Valrie met Patience’s look and shook her head. “Feral fucking ghouls. Like Gob, back at Moriarty’s, but mindless. Vicious. They’ll tear anything apart. Humans, non-feral ghouls, Super Mutants. Not ‘cos they’re strong, but because they swarm. Nasty.”</p><p>Patience didn’t like the sound of that, but after that StimPak, she felt like she could take on an army. She had to watch that, though. By instinct, she knew the feeling was temporary, at the least, and fake at the worst. If she went into a fight, confident that the StimPak had made her invincible, but finding out she was no stronger than usual? Well, that would be bad. Over-confidence equals dead. Dead means no answers.</p><p>Her need for answers overrode any fake confidence.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Progress became slow through the ruins. Every doorway could hide a raider. Every window could shield a Super Mutant. Every corner. Every open space. Patience felt the tenseness of the situation with every step. Turning a corner, she dipped her rifle to lessen her profile, then brought it up again as she moved around it. Sticking close to the wall, crab-stepping forward to the next piece of cover and then the next, and the next.</p><p>Reaching another corner, Vincent brought them to a halt, crouching down and surveying the area with his rifle. It was yet another battleground. Yet more bodies littered the floor. Humans, in mix-and-match outfits, around ten of them, and a couple of Super Mutants. It was unclear to Patience who had won that particular battle. Pieces of raiders ranged as far as only a few feet away. A leg, ragged where it had become bloody, ripped from the body, leaned against the half-broken pillar of the building.</p><p>“Movement.” Vincent pointed his hand straight ahead, towards a fluted roof above, what appeared to be, a set of escalators. “That’s Friendship Heights Metro station. That’s where we need to go.”</p><p>Valrie didn’t even need asking, the broken binoculars pressed into Patience’s hand and she raised them to get a better look at the scene ahead. There were three people, that she could see. One seemed seriously injured, laid on the parapet, thrashing around as the other two tried to help them. Those two weren’t in the best of shape, either. One had an arm dangling useless at their side, the other had a gash in their back, bloodied and ugly.</p><p>“It doesn’t look like they’re much of a threat.” Patience offered the binoculars to Vincent, but he shook his head.</p><p>“Everything’s a threat. We should kill them.” He popped his magazine, checked his ammo, even though he hadn’t fired a shot.</p><p>Valrie had taken a look through her broken binoculars. “No, Patience is right. They look fucked up. Maybe we should, you know, talk to the fuckers?”</p><p>“Since when has talking got anyone anywhere in the Wasteland?” Vincent gave Valrie a pitying look. It was clear how he felt about talking and Patience understood.</p><p>She hadn’t had as much experience of the Capital Wasteland as her two companions, but nothing she had seen showed that people were likely to listen before fighting. It was a harsh place. But, she considered, did that mean she shouldn’t try? She chewed her lip in thought for a second.</p><p>“Maybe, just maybe, if we show mercy to people they might pass that mercy on.” She stood up, dropping her rifle across her chest. Not putting it down, but not holding it aggressively. She’d be ready if she needed to be. “I’m going to try, but you be ready if it doesn’t work.”</p><p>“You’ve got to be shitting me!” Vincent stared at her for a good long while, wrestling with his instincts to kill the raiders while it was easy. “This is a bad idea.”</p><p>Patience shrugged and began walking towards the Metro station and the raiders. She moved slow, picking her way through the bodies, and body parts, of the raiders and Super Mutants, staying in full sight, but the three living raiders were too focussed upon each other, not noticing her approach. She realised that seeming to appear out of nowhere, without warning, would, most like, spook them.</p><p>She moved to the side of the building nearest to the raiders, pressing her back against the wall, surprised to find that Valrie and Vincent had followed her. Likewise, they hunkered against the wall, Vincent muttering to himself, almost in silence. Patience popped a glance around the corner. The raiders still remained oblivious. It would be so easy to kill them and save herself the bother.</p><p>“Raiders!” She gripped her rifle at the exclamations from around the corner. “Drop your weapons! No-one needs to die here.”</p><p>“Fuck you!” Vincent cocked his head in an ‘I told you so’ manner. “We’ll cut your fucking faces off!”</p><p>“Cut?” Valrie said what they were all thinking. “He definitely said ‘cut’. Not shoot. Those fuckers haven’t got anything.”</p><p>“I’m coming out, raiders. I have a gun and lots of ammo. I don’t want to kill you.” Patience heard hushed, rushed whispers around the corner. She stepped away from the wall, raising her rifle as she turned the corner.</p><p>They were little more than kids, late teens, Patience guessed. A boy, holding a tiny knife in his shaking hands, wearing a metal worker’s leather apron, and a girl, her hand resting on the injured one’s chest, wearing a grubby string-strapped top and over-sized combat pants. She didn’t have a weapon at all. The one on the parapet, another boy, groaned in pain.</p><p>“Drop the knife.” Patience used the gun barrel to indicate where the knife should go. She looked at the girl, arm hanging limp beside her. “That arm’s dislocated. I can fix that.”</p><p>Patience heard a grumble from behind. Vincent pushed by her, hitting the boy in the head with the butt of his rifle, sending the boy flopping to the ground, unconscious. Spinning his rifle to his back, he grabbed the girl’s useless arm, holding the wrist, pressing his other hand on her shoulder and pulled. There was a sickening crack and crunch, and the girl fell to her knees, screaming in pain.</p><p>“Talking was taking too long.” Even as he had relocated the shoulder of the girl, Vincent had spied the raiders’ settlement. A series of broken down, corrugated palisades surrounding a set of beds and tables. “Coming, scavenger?”</p><p>Valrie shook her head and Vincent walked away to the raiders’ settlement. Patience picked up the little knife, passing it to Valrie and sat the boy upright against the parapet. She forced the girl, still holding her shoulder, to sit beside him. Crouching, she looked at them both as Valrie checked their badly injured friend.</p><p>“First things first, we’re not going to kill you.” The girl, even injured, glared in defiance at Patience. “We’re going down into the Metro. Is there anything we should know?”</p><p>“Yeah. You’re going to fucking die, bitch!” The girl spat towards Patience.</p><p>“Hey! Watch your fucking mouth!” Valrie slapped the back of the girl’s head. When she caught Patience’s eye, she pointed to the injured boy on the parapet and pulled a thumb across her throat.</p><p>“Your friend’s dying. No-one else needs to. Just tell us what you know of the Metro down there.” The girl strained her neck around to look up at her dying friend.</p><p>“Nothing. No-one goes down there. Too many ghoulies.” Knowing her friend was dying subdued the girl’s defiance.</p><p>Vincent returned, carrying a bulky, well-made rifle in his hands and chewing on some kind of meat. He tossed the rifle to Patience.</p><p>“Chinese. Same ammo. Better than that piece of shit you got.” He coughed and spat out the meat, wiping his mouth with a disgusted look. “No ammo, though. That’s why that little shit only had a knife.”</p><p>Patience turned the new rifle over in her hands. It was, to be certain, a much better gun than the one she had. She almost felt guilty removing the strap from the old, home-made rifle and tying it to the new one. She had become used to the weapon. Yet she was certain the Chinese rifle would be better down in the Metro. Where ghouls roamed and raiders avoided.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“Hoo-hoo-boy! Do I have some fresh, fresh news, children! Straight from the horse’s mouth.</p><p>Earlier today, four people, captured by Super Mutants, were saved by a ‘mysterious woman’. Yes, brothers and sisters, one of those prisoners stopped long enough from running away to tell old Three Dog the incredible story.</p><p>This ‘mysterious woman’ walked in to the Super Mutant camp, cut the captives free, then decided to take on two Super Mutants. Alone. I know! Crazy, right?</p><p>And the craziest thing? She won! That’s right. Two yellow freaks versus one itty-bitty lady and the lady came out on top.</p><p>Now, I know what you’re thinking. Is this our new Avenging Angel? The Beautiful Stranger from Vault I-Don’t-Know-What?</p><p>Well, dear listeners, how many of these female killing machines can there be?</p><p>Instead of making assumptions, Three Dog will simply doff a knowing hat, with a wink, thankful for any help the Wasteland gets. If I had a hat.</p><p>This newly, newsy, bulletin came to you from Three Dog! Ahwooo! Holding it together in hope.”</p><p>-+-</p><p>“I didn’t tell him!” Valrie threw up her hands in her defence. “I was here the whole fucking time.”</p><p>Patience stared, open-mouthed, at the Pip-Boy on her arm. For a post-apocalyptic world, with no working telephones, few radios and almost as few people, news got around pretty fast. She brushed an incredulous hand through her steel grey hair and looked into the hazy sky. So much for keeping a low profile.</p><p>“Wait. So, you’re this ‘Beautiful Stranger’ he’s been talking about?” Vincent kicked the young male raider back onto his backside. The boy had regained consciousness and tried to get up. “You’re not that beautiful.”</p><p>“I didn’t call myself that.” Patience turned away, looking over the parapet towards the gates of the Friendship Heights Metro station.</p><p>“Yeah. That was me.” Shrugging, Valrie looked over the parapet too. “I thought it would give the news a bit of pizazz. Besides, she’s kind of beautiful.”</p><p>“Oh, don’t get me wrong, she’s pretty, but beautiful?” Vincent stared at the raider boy, daring him to move again. “Not that there’s that many beautiful women around to compare to.”</p><p>“I thought you’d be ... bigger. Taller.” Now the young raider girl, cradling her arm, sat on the ground, joined in. “You got muscles, but you’re pretty short.”</p><p>Patience stared at them all, unable to articulate what she was thinking into words. Shaking her head, she moved away, setting off towards the escalators. Before entering underground, she wanted to get a good look at what might lay ahead. As she set off down the seized, unmoving stairs, she caught a glimpse of Valrie lighting a cigarette and offering one to Vincent. Relations thawing for the moment.</p><p>“Now look what you fucking did! Asshole.” Valrie’s words drifted away as Patience descended.</p><p>The gates on the station, rusted and bent, had a sign declaring “No Dead Bodies Dumped In Metro” hung limp and off-kilter, hanging by a thin strand of decaying wire. The concertina gates were closed firm, a thick chain wrapped around the handles, held together by a large padlock.</p><p>Patience grabbed the padlock, hoping age had loosened it, or forced it into uselessness, but even a vigorous shake and tug couldn’t dislodge it. Covering her eyes with a hand, she tried looking through the gates into the station, but a thick mist, or smoke, blanketed everywhere in sight. A last tug on the padlock proved as useless as the last and she turned back towards the escalators.</p><p>“I swear to Jebus! They just fucking walked away. Walked. Away!” Valrie was making a dramatic sweeping gesture with her hand as regaled her tale to Vincent and the two rapt raiders. “I won’t lie, I almost needed new underwear. I never seen anything fucking like it.”</p><p>Patience crouched down in front of the young girl, who now appeared to have an undisguised look of admiration on her face. She gritted her teeth and tried to smile at the young raider.</p><p>“Hey. What’s your name?” She crossed her arms over her new assault rifle, hoping it would make the girl feel at ease.</p><p>“Don’t you fucking tell her, Gia!” The young man received a back-handed slap from Vincent and he yelped, rubbing his head.</p><p>“Gia. Is that your name?” The girl made furious nodding gestures, her wide, bright eyes staring at Patience with glee. “Well, Gia, we’re just passing through. We don’t want to hurt anybody. We don’t want to fight. We just want to get into the Metro station. There’s a padlock, though. Do you know where the padlock key is, Gia?”</p><p>“Uh-huh. Darrin has it.” She hooked a thumb at the young man beside her, making a show of rolling her eyes and pretending to be sick. “It made him feel important in the gang.”</p><p>“Shut the fuck up, Gia! Geez.” The young man couldn’t believe Gia had given up the information so fast. “I am important in the gang! And no fucking old whore is taking my key!”</p><p>Darrin’s defiance didn’t last long. Vincent grabbed him by the collar, lifting him up until his feet almost left the ground. With his other hand, Vincent searched through the boy’s pockets, soon finding the key and tossing it to Patience. Turning the dangling boy, Vincent glared into the boy’s eyes before half-dropping, half-throwing him back to the ground.</p><p>Patience nodded at Gia and stood up. Without saying a word, she urged Valrie and Vincent to follow her and she, once again, made for Friendship station’s escalators to descend down into whatever hell the underground had waiting for them. She didn’t relish the idea.</p><p>“Miss Stranger?” The girl, Gia, braver than her companion, ignored the muzzle of Vincent’s rifle, arced around, swift and precise, to point at her. “Can I come? There’s no-one else left but Darrin and he’s an asshole. I mean, you can say ‘no’, but I’m gonna follow you anyway. I just thought it’d be polite to ask.”</p><p>“We’re not going on a trip to the fucking park, kid.” Valrie still held the dead cigarette between her lips. “You said yourself, these tunnels are filled with fucking ghouls. And we don’t have any weapons for you.”</p><p>Gia held up a finger, urging them to wait and disappeared from sight. Patience looked at Valrie, silent communication wondering what the hell she was doing. Valrie, as she did often, merely shrugged, adjusting her football helmet. Seconds later, Gia came skipping down the staircase, wearing a new top, a padded, leather and cloth bra-type thing, and carrying a baseball bat and, what looked like, a World War II flying helmet.</p><p>Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she pulled the flying helmet on to her head and draped the baseball bat over her shoulder, grinning at Patience, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with her.</p><p>“Jesus fucking Christ.” Vincent, as expected, seemed less than convinced, turning away from the girl, waiting for Patience to open the gate.</p><p>She shook her head, herself. Looking back up at the parapet she could see Darrin, leaning over, thrusting out an arm, leading to a fist with the middle finger raised. At least he wasn’t joining the group. Taking the key, she unlocked the padlock, untwisted the heavy chain and passed that back to Gia. Maybe she could wrap it around her as a kind of armour.</p><p>Vincent grabbed one handle, Patience the other and they pulled the gates apart. An ominous, screeching howl erupted from the gates as they collapsed aside, revealing a space to climb through. She pulled the butt of her new, Chinese, rifle into her shoulder. The weight of the new rifle felt comforting and solid and she wondered how long it would be before she found out how well it fired.</p><p>As they all made careful steps into the gloom of the murky, smoke-filled station, she considered it wouldn’t be that long at all.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>12</p><p>She turned off the radio and the silence became deafening. Every footstep sounded like an avalanche. She could hear the smoker’s breathing of Valrie, the little clicks and metallic tinks of the rifles that she and Vincent carried and the rustling of clothing. She even heard her own breathing through her nose.</p><p>The smoke clung to their lungs, caused their line of sight to diminish, revealing only a few feet ahead at any time. To their left, she saw two doors appear from the gloom and she indicated to Vincent to check the one further ahead as she stepped towards the nearest one. Gia almost attached herself to her shoulder, sticking far too close for Patience’s liking.</p><p>Reaching out, careful and steady, she turned the handle and pushed, raising her rifle as the door swing an erratic path open. She found it incredible that there were still working lights in the station and, here in this room, the single fluorescent strip light blazed, clearing any shadows from sight. It was a bathroom, a ladies, with several closed stalls and three wash basins.</p><p>A dull skittering sound came from inside one of the stalls and she gripped the rifle tight, side-stepping towards it. Her hand shook as she reached for the stall door. The intensity of the whole thing had started to get to her, this was clear. A quick push sent the door banging against the stall sides and something jumped out towards her face.</p><p>“Radroach!” Gia shouted, even as Patience recovered her composure, turning her rifle in one swift movement.</p><p>She was too late, though. Gia had launched her baseball bat at the creature as it tried to run out of the bathroom door. The young girl slammed the bat down onto the creatures back, hitting it several times, each hit punctuated by an excitable shout. She kept hitting even as the radroach became a smear of ichor and body parts on the floor, each hit sending a thudding echo throughout the station, not even dulled by the smoky air.</p><p>“Gia! Stop!” Patience hissed, grabbing for the girl’s arm and seeing the crazed, wide-eyed look on the girl’s face. “You’re making too much noise!”</p><p>Gia stopped hitting the radroach, grinning. Half-giggling, half-gulping in breaths. Patience considered they had made a mistake allowing the girl to follow. Although, she had said she would have followed anyway. At least with her close by, Patience could try to keep her more exuberant excesses to a minimum.</p><p>With the immediate threat ended, Valrie pushed into the bathroom, checking the trash can, opening each stall door and checking everything. The floor, the toilet bowls, even the cisterns. Shaking her head, Valrie seemed disappointed. Even now, the older woman was scavenging. It was her livelihood, after all.</p><p>“Other door was the men’s bathroom. Couple of radroaches. Nothing else.” Vincent kept his voice low, keeping his eye further into the station.</p><p>“We had a radroach too! I killed it! Dead, dead, dead. Pow!” Gia didn’t seem to know how to whisper, swinging the baseball bat around to punctuate her story.</p><p>“Don’t get fucking cocky, kid.” Valrie pushed past Gia, shoving the bat downwards as she passed. “And keep your fucking voice down or we’ll have worse than fucking radroaches on our asses!”</p><p>“There looks like an office on the other side of the hall.” Vincent nodded across the station hall to a door cloaked in the haze of the smoke.</p><p>He coughed into the crook of his elbow. Patience knew the smoke was getting to them all and they needed to get under the blanket of it before they became ill. They couldn’t, however, leave any place uninvestigated. The last thing they needed was an attack from behind because their throats were a little scratchy and they couldn’t bother to check a possible hiding place.</p><p>She and Vincent headed for the office door. Patience placed her back against the wall and held on to the door handle. With a nod from Vincent, she opened it, pushing the door wide and followed the bodyguard as he swept inside.</p><p>The first room, half-filled by a collapsed ceiling, was empty. They switched positions, Patience using her weapon to point to possible spaces for attack, she crouch walked into the next room, followed by Vincent. Seeing no enemies, she relaxed a little.</p><p>“Clear.” She whispered.</p><p>“Clear.” Vincent confirmed.</p><p>The air in the offices had much less smoke in it than the rest of the station outside. As Valrie and Gia filed in, Patience closed the door to lessen the spread of the smoke, then returned to the other room. Several filing cabinets lined one wall and Valrie swooped upon them, searching each and every drawer. Along the other wall, she could see a computer terminal on a metal desk. An old telephone hanging off the hook. Set into the wall, a square safe sat, a little green light blinking in the centre.</p><p>“Check the computer, maybe there’s a map, or information added after the bombs dropped that might be useful.” She asked Vincent, but it was Gia that dived behind the desk, installing herself into the ragged, flea-bitten desk chair.</p><p>“I’ll do it! I’m awesome with computers!” The young ex-raider cracked her knuckles in a dramatic flourish and then drummed her fingers on the top of the desk, dipping her head to look on both sides of the bulky box. “Where’s the ‘on’ button?”</p><p>“Jebus fucking Christ!” Valrie, satisfied she had found everything in the filing cabinets, stormed to the other side of the desk, pushing the chair bound Gia out of the way. “I’ll fucking do it. I’m no Moira, but I do alright.”</p><p>Patience was glad someone was alright with the computer. By instinct, she knew that working with the terminals was not part of her training. She looked at the box and keyboard and her mind was blank. Conversely, as soon as Vincent had thrown the Chinese rifle to her, she knew she could break it down, maintain it and reassemble it in seconds. The information was, somehow, there waiting to filter through. No such information bobbed in the outskirts of her mind about computers.</p><p>“Nothing. Just inter-company bulletins. But the safe can be unlocked from here. I don’t have that much skill. Moira could do it. Fucking easy.” Valrie noticed a Vault-Boy bobblehead on the desk and secreted it into one of her many pockets. That made Patience smile, despite the circumstances.</p><p>“I can do it!” Gia saw them all looking at her and forced her face into something she considered stern. “I can! Trust me. Just give me a second.”</p><p>Gia tapped on the keyboard for a few minutes, raising her eyebrows, frowning, punching the screen. Patience sighed and was about to turn away to leave the offices, when she heard a click and a ‘whoop’ from Gia. The girl spun the desk chair around, throwing her arms in the air. Patience nodded to Valrie to check out the safe.</p><p>“Now, that’s fucking nice!” Valrie had swung the safe door open and almost rubbed her hands with glee. Gia joined her, her eyes widening at what she saw.</p><p>“Ooh! Shiny! Mine!” The young girl reached into the safe, slapped away by Valrie as she indicated that Patience and Vincent should take a look.</p><p>-+-</p><p>With the door closed, the smoke from outside couldn’t circulate. It was still in the air, though, and Patience decried her new name once more, itching to keep moving and get into some semblance of clean air. Vincent and Valrie, however, didn’t seem to see the urgency in needing to move on through the Metro station.</p><p>They stood around the desk, holding Gia back, and stared at the objects they had removed from the safe. It looked like a gun, but unlike any weapon Patience could recall seeing. With tubing and glass in the place of a normal barrel and a grip with a circular hole in the bottom, instead of a slot for a clip, it looked bizarre. Several round capsules, like batteries, sat beside it. Valrie leant on her elbows to look close at the device.</p><p>“What the fuck is a laser pistol doing in a Metro station?” The older woman reached out and poked the pistol, turning it around on the desk. “I mean, sure, a fucking gun in case of emergencies, but a fucking laser pistol? That’s military. What were they expecting? Fucking aliens?”</p><p>“Who cares? It’s mine!” Gia reached for the weapon again, her hand slapped away once more, the back of the hand beginning to redden from the number of times Valrie had hit it. She scowled and pointed to each of the others in turn. “She’s got big fucking guns, he’s got big fucking guns, you’re too old to pull a trigger. So, mine! Logic!”</p><p>“Watch your fucking language.” Valrie slapped the back of Gia’s head. “You’re not getting the gun.”</p><p>Ignoring Gia’s pout, Patience picked up the gun, turning it around in her hands. She’d never seen a gun like it, so how did she know how to break it down put it back together? She picked up one of the capsules, a power cell, and clicked it into place. The pistol lit up with a whooshing noise and Patience could feel it hum in her hand. A dial at the back, where the hammer would be on a normal gun, seemed to control the strength of the beam.</p><p>“Set in on low, lock it and give it to the girl. It’ll work against ghouls on that setting.” Vincent hooked a thumb at Gia. “Otherwise she’s just a damned liability, especially with that damned mouth of hers.”</p><p>Patience thumbed the dial down low, pushed the dial down, span the pistol around in her hand and offered it to Gia. The girl’s eyes almost popped out of her head, her mouth a comical ‘O’, and she grabbed the pistol from Patience’s hand pointing it the walls, the safe, the filing cabinets. Valrie groaned, rubbing her eyes with one hand.</p><p>“This is a bad fucking idea.” Pushing herself up, Valrie took two of the power cells, dropping them in a pocket and gave the remainder to Gia. “If you shoot any of us with that thing, deliberate or accident, I will kick your fucking ass so hard you’ll never, ever sit down again.”</p><p>“Oh, don’t be so grumpy, grandma.” Gia put the spare power cells in a pouch at her waist. “I’m awesome with guns. You’ll see.”</p><p>“Let’s keep moving or this smoke will kill us before any ghouls do.” Force of habit made Patience check her weapons’ status before starting to move to the door. She caught Gia’s eyes and held them. “Keep quiet. Don’t talk. If you think you need to talk, you don’t. If you really think you need to talk, whisper. And, just don’t fucking shoot us, alright?”</p><p>Gia mimed zipping her lips shut and gave a thumb’s up sign. Rolling her eyes and controlling the sigh she felt she needed to make, Patience looked at Vincent. He nodded, ready to move out. Valrie, likewise, nodded her readiness. Patiences made a tiny jerk of the head towards Gia and Valrie understood. Keep any eye on the excitable ex-raider. She opened the door and Vincent led the way back into the hall.</p><p>From the doorway, they turned right, keeping low to minimise the effects of the smoke. They reached the ticket barriers first and found a skeleton reaching up, a ticket in its hand, pointing towards the ticket slot. As gruesome as that was, Patience had seen worse. The hallway swept around to the right and started to slope downwards. The air began to clear, somewhat, as they descended, the smoke lingering above their heads now. Keeping to the sides, Patience moved forward towards an archway that led to the underground concourse and the source of the smoke.</p><p>Before entering the concourse, Patience and Vincent both roved the muzzles of their rifles into the space opening up beyond the archway. This was a raised walkway, above the main platform of the station. Parts of the roof above had caved in, leaving mounds of rubble piled up at several points. And, further down, almost in the centre of the walkway, a large bonfire blazed, sending smoke rippling into the air.</p><p>Most of the smoke escaped from the holes in the roof, but some bounced and trickled back downwards, causing the miasma in the entry way they had come through. If not for the holes in the roof, the station would have been impassable. Patience wondered what kind of fool would build such a big fire inside?</p><p>Vincent indicated he’d not seen any movement and slipped into the walkway area, ghosting away to the right, even as Patience slipped in and peeled away to the left. Valrie held Gia back, for the moment, the young girl struggling to join up with Patience. Navigating the mounds of rubble, Patience came upon the first signs of who could have started the fire.</p><p>Lined up against the parapet wall, she found several dirty, stained mattresses. One, a smaller one, still had an old teddy bear placed, with great care it seemed, at the top end of the mattress next to the only pillow. Someone had brought their family down here. To escape raiders, or Super Mutants, or any number of other things, Patience didn’t know. With the fire still burning, it wasn’t that long ago, either.</p><p>The fire was too big for cooking, or keeping warm. It was for protection, built high to fend off things that didn’t like heat, or, especially, light. She passed the line of mattresses, heading closer to the fire, passing other signs of habitation. Fresh, emptied cans, boxes of breakfast cereal, bottles of water, cracked and dripping their contents. A suitcase, flipped onto its side, looking like the maw of a toothless monster, and clothes thrown around on the floor, ripped and shredded.</p><p>And then she found something else. An arm, still in a dirty brown suit jacket, laid on the floor. Patience could see bite marks in the material and on the skin of the arm that she could see. Bite marks and scratches. The arm, ripped from the body, had blood pooling and congealing around the tattered end where a piece of bone poked out as if searching for the shoulder to reattach to.</p><p>A little further around, Patience found another body. This one, she assumed, must have been the mother. A cute, but filthy, summer dress with blue flowers superimposed on the yellow material. Patience would say the dead woman was lying face down, if she had a head. Where the head should be, Patience only saw a creeping pool of blood. The rest of the body had the same bite and scratch marks as the disembodied arm.</p><p>And still no sign of the child. In her sad reverie, she almost missed Vincent waving for her to join him. She moved fast, keeping low, and joined him at the other side, near the escalators. He used military hand signals again. Look over, downwards. Over ten enemies, spread out. They needed to go down the escalators, double-back and go through the south tunnels. Patience nodded. She understood.</p><p>She took a glance over the parapet and caught sight of her first feral ghoul. Laid atop a broken down Metro carriage, seeming asleep but twitching its legs and arms. It looked gaunt, ravaged. Its skin thin and parchment-like, a strip of cloth, that may once have been clothing, draped over its groin. Fingers like claws. She took an extra second and looked around. She saw several more of them in various places, laid or sat down. Almost dormant.</p><p>She returned behind the parapet to see the concerned face of Vincent and knew. They had to go down and hope and pray they didn’t disturb any of them, or they’d never get through alive.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Valrie and Gia soon joined them and Patience made it perfectly clear to Gia that she needed to remain silent. The young woman made vigorous nods, but Patience continued to stare until the nods became serious and contrite. The last thing they needed was any noise at all to alert the feral ghouls to their presence.</p><p>Pointing at Vincent, Patience indicated he would be moving first, followed by Valrie, then Gia with Patience taking up the rear. Vincent adjusted his grip on his assault rifle, his eyes closed as he breathed deep, his head leaning back against the parapet. Patience could see the sweat upon his brow in the light of the bonfire, still burning behind them.</p><p>That could be a problem. She didn’t know how well the ghouls could see, but for a few desperate seconds, each of them would project a noticeable silhouette due to the fire. They could minimise that by keeping low and tight to the sides of the escalators, but it would still be there. She only hoped that Valrie and Gia could get low enough to mitigate the problem.</p><p>When she was certain everyone was ready, she tapped Vincent on the shoulder. His eyes snapped open and began to move. Reaching the entryway of the escalator, he glanced around once, then slipped down onto the steps. Despite his size and wearing big, strong boots, he made no sound, disappearing down the stairs. Valrie was next, an awkward bend to her back, using the escalator sides to steady herself, she followed the big bodyguard.</p><p>Gia surprised Patience by following Valrie with graceful, light steps, almost as if she were dancing, the laser pistol gripped in a firm hand, the baseball bat tied to her back. As she left Patience’s view, Patience lifted her rifle muzzle up and crouch walked forward.</p><p>Vincent reached the bottom of the stairs, sweeping his rifle around, pausing on each of the places he had identified a ghoul. He didn’t look back, but waited. Soon Valrie joined him, crouching down a step up, then Gia and then Patience. Patience was about to tap Gia on the shoulder, a sign to pass the tap forward, when she heard a gargling hiss to the side.</p><p>The ghoul on top of the Metro carriage lifted its head, opening its mouth and emitting that strange, eerie, inhuman hiss. It sniffed the air, turning its head upwards towards the overhead walkway. Raising up on all fours, it turned in a circle before laying back down. Patience could feel her hand almost cramp up with tension, held above Gia’s shoulder. After a few seconds, she made the tap.</p><p>As soon as the taps travelled down the line to his shoulder, Vincent moved around the corner, heading towards the southerly tunnels. Patience kept watch, covering him as dropped down onto the tracks and moving up to a good spot to concertina the group again. Patience watched as Valrie turned the corner and then Gia. Down here, away from the bonfire above and with weak beams of light filtering down from the broken roof, Patience got a better look at the devastation in the Metro station.</p><p>Bones were everywhere, some with remnants of tattered clothing attached, with watches or jewellery, which even Valrie didn’t disturb. Victims of the nuclear bombs or dead after the fact, Patience couldn’t tell. Metro carriages skewed against the track walls, or jumped the tracks entire. Cars had crashed down onto the concourse from the streets above and everywhere rubble piled high. Concrete, rebars, wood, glass, every material one could imagine littered the area.</p><p>She had drifted. The others waited for her, clinging to the wall of the tracks, keeping their heads low. She made one more sweep with her rifle and moved quick and low to join the others. Vincent looked around, screwing his eyes up in question. What had taken her so long? She signalled she was okay. He nodded and used hand signals to state their next moves. One tunnel blocked at the entrance, the other blocked further down. They would use one tunnel then cross through to the other. Patience assumed some kind of maintenance side shaft.</p><p>When Vincent felt satisfied everyone was ready, he began moving up the track, maintaining awareness, using his rifle at all times, he headed towards a make-shift bridge across the tracks made from planks of rotting wood. Gia almost kicked a rusted tin can, but caught her foot in time. The girl was about to breathe a sigh of relief when the ghoul attacked Vincent.</p><p>The creature, sleeping beneath the wooden bridge, had remained hidden by the piles of debris, the harsh, hissing, gurgling noise cut short by Vincent’s hand. He reacted fast and Patience had to react fast, too. Gia, surprised by the sudden movement from the ghoul, gasped in a lungful of air and was about to scream. Dropping her rifle to dangle against her chest, Patience dived towards Gia, her arm wrapping around the girl’s throat, clamping her hand over her mouth, her other arm wrapping around Gia’s arms, dragging her down to the ground and holding her so tight, the girl struggled to breathe.</p><p>Vincent struggled, also. He’d stopped the feral ghoul from making a noise, but now the creature chewed upon his hand, scratched at his face, kicked and kneed the bodyguard, ferocious and wild. Vincent reached down to his belt, scrambling for his knife while he twisted and bobbed his head away from scything, claw-like fingernails. Pushing the creature down, he drew his knife and slammed it up under the ghoul’s jaw sending the blade biting deep into its skull and piercing what remained of its brain. He twisted and wiggled the blade, cutting in to more of the brain, the creature’s blood oozing over his hand.</p><p>With a final kick of the legs, the ghoul became immobile, limp. Dead. Vincent, breathing heavy, his eyes wide, looked around. He found his rifle and brought it to bear, moving the muzzle around, awaiting the onslaught. As the seconds ticked by and no more ghouls attacked, Patience released her grip on Gia, who gasped for air. Patience pointed to Vincent then made the ‘ok’ sign. He nodded, shaking his left hand and clenching it several times.</p><p>Patience felt amazed that Gia didn’t launch into a tirade of curses, angry at Patience handling her like that, but she surprised everyone by remaining silent, edging past the dead ghoul as they all made their way to the tunnel entrance.</p><p>Taking their time, being careful, they reached the tunnel entrance without further incident. Patience turned back the way they came, keeping her eye out while edging backwards, her shoulder brushing the wall. She glanced over her shoulder to see Vincent pass the first maintenance area, pushing on, following the curve of the tunnel. She kept a tense watch on their rear as they neared a second side area.  Again, she glance back to see Vincent turn the corner into the maintenance area. Then Valrie moved around. Still edging backwards, Patience assumed Gia followed suit.</p><p>“Ooh! Nuka-Cola!” Gia thought she whispered it, but the words carried. Echoing into the tunnel.</p><p>Patience’s eyes widened in horror as she realised what was happening. She turned and tried to run around the corner, but she was too late. Gia, stood before a Nuka-Cola dispenser, her hand still pressing the button. And then the machine banged and rattled as a bottle came tumbling from its stocks, rolling into the moulded metal catcher. Gia’s face looked horrified.</p><p>“I didn’t think it still worked!” She made an almost pleading face towards Patience.</p><p>“Oh, fuck!” Valrie slapped the top of her football helmet.</p><p>Patience didn’t have time to feel annoyed. She looked back around the corner. She could see movement. Slow at first, but gathering pace. Figures moving in the shadows, crawling atop the abandoned Metro carriages, crawling beneath them. Green eyes radiating out from the darkness and many hissing, gargling noises. Coming their way.</p><p>“Run!” She hissed, turning to see the others looking at her. She decided it was too late for stealth and yelled. “Fucking run!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>13</p><p>Racing past broken down Metro carriages, Patience picked up Gia by the arm, dragging her forward. The young girl, stumbling over debris almost fell and if they stopped for even a second, the ghouls would overrun them. Gia caught her footing once more and Patience let the girl go to turn round, fall to one knee bringing her rifle to bear and fired back the way they came.</p><p>The eardrum shattering retort echoed a crazy, frantic drumbeat in the enclosed space as bullets ripped into the lead ghoul sending it spinning to the ground, tripping up several others as it fell. She’d bought them precious little time. Bounding to her feet, she returned to a breakneck pace, following the curve of the tunnel, careening off the side of one of the shattered carriages.</p><p>Up ahead, she saw Vincent taking cover in a hole, made from a broken section of the track wall, his laser-focus aimed behind her. Valrie and Gia stood behind him, like terrified statues, Gia gripping Valrie with white knuckles. Rushing past Vincent, Patience pushed the two women onwards.</p><p>“Keep fucking moving!” Their ashen faces stared at her, but they began to move.</p><p>As soon as Patience passed Vincent, he began unloading into the horde of ghouls chasing them, taking careful aim, loosing two shots at a time. Patience couldn’t take the time to look back. She forced the other two forward until she saw another pile of rubble. A good size for cover.</p><p>“Falling back! Reloading!” Vincent had caught another couple of ghouls, but the others ignored their dead comrades, continuing to rush towards the four humans.</p><p>Patience dropped behind the rubble and spun to face back down the tunnel. Vincent, head down, barrelled towards her with a ghoul mere feet from his back. Patience took careful aim and fired. The bullet zinged over Vincent’s shoulder, catching the ghoul almost dead centre in its forehead, dropping it like a stone.</p><p>It was all they could do to leap-frog each other, one laying down fire, the other beating a retreat. Vincent passed Patience’s position taking over pushing the other two forward. The exit to this section of the tunnel was up a short climb and Patience hoped there were no more ghouls up on the next concourse to deal with.</p><p>She fired on automatic, now, sending hot metal flying into the bodies of the chasing, screeching, hissing creatures. Several fell in that burst, making a momentary blockage between the carriage and the tunnel walls. She took the opportunity, sprinting up the slight incline to join the others. Vincent leaned against the tunnel wall, breathing heavy, desperate eyes staring onto the concourse, swapping out a magazine and cycling the weapon. As soon as Patience reached them, he arced the rifle overhead and brought it down pointing back down the tunnel.</p><p>“Get them up the stairs!” He fired into the darkness of the tunnel, aiming at movement, green, glowing eyes, shadows. “Take the exit on the left, it leads out into the ruins.”</p><p>“Go! Go!” Patience pointed towards the escalator stairs leading upwards, not twenty feet away.</p><p>Valrie reached the stairs first, her little legs pumping double-time as her boots hammered upon the metal, striated steps. Gia stayed close behind the older scavenger. Patience fired some more shots down the tunnel, giving Vincent time to reload once more. When he was ready, he tapped her leg once and she made an immediate turn to follow the other two women.</p><p>She was only half-way up the stairs when she heard the scream. Bounding up the remaining stairs, two at a time, she reached the top to see a ghoul crouching above the prone body of Valrie, laying face down on the floor. Before Patience could lift her rifle, an electronic screech pierced the air, a beam of light raced outwards and penetrated the back of the ghoul’s skull, leaving a smouldering, cauterised hole.</p><p>It collapsed, limp, atop of Valrie. Patience ran to the immobile form, pushing the ghoul to the side, its skin feeling both dry and squishy at the same time. She turned Valrie over, revealing a long set of scratch marks on the football helmet.</p><p>“I fucking hate feral ghouls!” Valrie groaned and grabbed Patience’s arm to pull herself up. “Check the kid.”</p><p>Patience left Valrie to stand and moved fast over to Gia, the laser pistol held between two shaking hands, still aimed at the unmoving ghoul on the floor. The girl’s entire body was shaking, but she allowed Patience to lift her from the floor, pushing her onwards. They didn’t have the time. The noises from below had subsided. Patience could no longer hear the repeated blasts of rifle fire. Either Vincent was dead, or out of ammunition. Either way, she had two people she needed to get to safety. Vincent could take care of himself. Or not.</p><p>She could see the exit tunnel, beyond the frame of a car that had fallen into the station from a hole in the roof. Pushing both the other two women, she forced them around the rubble of roof collapse towards that tunnel, only to find their way blocked by several more ghouls heading out of the tunnel</p><p>She’d had enough. Firing from her hip, she raked bullets across them all, sending the projectiles blasting into the legs of the creatures, tearing off rotten flesh, shattering bones, sending them all crashing toward the floor. And still they came, crawling towards them, hands outstretched, hissing, gurgling. Patience heard the tell-tale noise of an empty magazine. She palmed the rifle down and, in the same movement, reached for her sidearm. She fired two times each into all the heads of the crawling ghouls and several times into their bodies, for good measure.</p><p>The action remained open and she realised she’d emptied the entire clip. With smooth movements, she switched clips in her sidearm, replaced it to her hip holster, replaced the magazine in her rifle and had it at the ready within seconds. She breathed heavy as she moved the rifle in a circular arc. With nothing immediate in sight, she urged the other two on into the exit tunnel.</p><p>They followed the curve without any further incident and they began to see the glimmer of light indicating the exit gates of the station. Only a few more feet to safety.</p><p>Patience heard movement behind, the pounding of feet, the hissing, gurgling and screeching of ghouls. Without a second’s hesitation, they all began running towards the exit. Heart’s racing, legs tiring. It almost seemed like they’d been down in the tunnels for days. Weeks. But the way out was ahead. Patience stopped. She heard a different sound. Boots.</p><p>She pushed the other women towards the gates and spun around, bringing her rifle to bear back towards the sound of boots. It was Vincent, bloodied, his rifle held in one hand, his arms pumping for his life and ghouls right behind him.</p><p>“Get out of the way!” She didn’t have to tell him twice, he took an immediate turn and dived to the side.</p><p>Patience let fly with every bullet in her weapon, spraying molten death towards the ghouls hissing and screaming at her. When her rifle ran out of ammunition again, she took to her sidearm, walking steady toward the creatures, picking the survivors off with single bullets to the head until she reached Vincent’s side, dragging him up by his arm. They both ran to the gates, even as the sound of more ghouls emerged from the depths of the Metro station below.</p><p>They made it out of the gates as the ghouls erupted from around the corner. Dozens of them racing toward the gates. Patience looked around and saw the heavy chain still wrapped around Gia’s chest. Taking it from her, she closed the gates, wrapping the chain around the handles, but with nothing to tie them closed.</p><p>“Here!” Valrie had reached into her many pockets and pulled out a screwdriver.</p><p>Patience rammed the screwdriver into the links of the chain as the lead ghouls slammed against the bars of the gates, arms stretching out, reaching, grasping and clutching towards them all.</p><p>“Yeah. Fuck you, you fucking degraded bitches!” Valrie dropped to the floor, removing her football helmet and wiping her head with the sleeve of her arm.</p><p>-+-</p><p>The ghouls stopped reaching out of the gates towards them and now only stared at the four people beyond their grasp. Their faces and eyes held no malice, no hunger, no anger. They only stared, shuffling around, jostling one another, sniffing the air and grunting in that hissing, gurgling fashion that their deteriorated throats would allow.</p><p>Patience checked her rifle. The barrel, almost red hot from the amount of firing she had performed, seemed fine. She was down to her last two magazines for both her rifle and her pistol. She had more 9mm ammunition, but it needed feeding into the clips she had removed. She mused that she would have to maintain the rifle soon.</p><p>Vincent wasn’t as lucky. The ammunition supply for his rifle ran out back in the tunnel. Only his .45 remained of use if they entered another firefight. He wiped the blood from the scratch on his cheek, another scar to add to the one above his eye. He slumped his head forward, resting his hands on his knees, his rifle propped up against the wall beside him.</p><p>Valrie and Gia both seemed unharmed, but the deep scratches in Valrie’s football helmet showed it could have turned out much worse for the scavenger. That ridiculous helmet saved her life and now the older woman, for certain, had a tale to tell. Gia seemed cowed and guilty, and well she might. Her thoughtlessness had caused the attack by the ghouls. Patience couldn’t understand someone brought up in this world could make such a stupid mistake.</p><p>“I need a fucking cigarette.” Valrie reached into a pocket, pulling out a pack of smokes. She took one out, lit it and passed the pack and the lighter to Vincent beside her. “Don’t say I never give you anything.”</p><p>Vincent, weary, took out a cigarette, lit it and breathed in deep, resting his head back against the wall before releasing the smoke in a cloud above his head. He passed the packet and lighter to Patience and she followed suit before passing the pack back to Valrie.</p><p>“Hey! What about me?” Gia gawped at them all, enjoying the deadly toxic sticks of tobacco. “I know I screwed up, but, come on!”</p><p>“How fucking old are you, anyway?” Valrie squinted at Gia through a haze of blue smoke.</p><p>“Well, I have boobs and I’ve got all the fur.” She pointed towards her groin with both hands. “So, I’d say I’m an adult.”</p><p>“Give the little shit a smoke.” Vincent tapped Valrie on the arm and pointed to Gia. Gia looked, expectant, towards Valrie, who sighed and tossed the pack and lighter to the younger woman.</p><p>Gia caught the items with a grin, opening the pack and pulling out a cigarette. As soon as they saw her holding it, they knew she’d never smoked before in her life. Holding the cigarette gingerly between her thumb and forefinger, she placed the filter end at the very edge of her lips before sparking the lighter, catching the other end with the flame and breathing in deep.</p><p>The reaction came in an instant. A brutal, hacking cough blew out the smoke in a diffuse ball. Gia’s eyes looked about to pop and tears pricked in the corners of her eyes. She continued coughing, still holding the cigarette out to the side. She took a tear-filled look at the white tube and then glances at the other three, all chuckling to themselves, before putting the cigarette back to her mouth and trying again.</p><p>“Not bad.” They had to give Gia credit, despite the hoarse, breaking voice, she managed to hold the second breath down before allowing it to emerge from her lungs. “I usually smoke a different brand.”</p><p>“Sure you fucking do.” Valrie snatched away the packet and the lighter, squirrelling them away inside one of her coat’s pockets.</p><p>Patience, enjoying the respite from the high intensity of the last hour or so, leaned back against the wall, staring up and out of the Metro entranceway. A tight set of stairs led up and she could see the nearest, partially destroyed, building not far away. Before that building, she could see the remains of a structure reaching upwards. Four iron legs ending in a circular frame that held a large brass globe. A representation of the Earth, with a stylised rocket flying around it.</p><p>The building she could see used to have lettering up the side of the wall, now fallen away and lost to time. Beside where the letters had sat, Patience could see a statue thrusting out from the corner. An enormous angel, wings sweeping back towards the building, wearing an ancient warrior’s helmet, staring down where once crowds wandered beneath its empty gaze.</p><p>“What happens next?” She realised she had almost smoked the entire cigarette in a couple of breaths and flicked the butt at the ghouls beyond the gate, causing their hisses to rise in tone for a second. “How much further to go?”</p><p>“We have about a block to go to hit another Metro station, pass through that and then about another three blocks overland to Vault-Tec HQ. Easy.” Vincent still found Gia’s attempts at smoking to be amusing.</p><p>“You mean we have to go through that again? I don’t want to see another fucking ghoul in my life. No offence.” Those last words, Valrie aimed at the growling monstrosities beyond the gate, holding her hand up in mock apology. “We almost didn’t get out of this fucking shit-hole. You nearly died.”</p><p>“Nah. The other station is clear.” He dipped his head and reached for his rifle, interlocking his fingers around it and leaning his weight upon it. “After that, I can’t guarantee anything.”</p><p>“How do you know the other station is clear?” Gia had dropped her cigarette to the side, hoping no-one saw that over half of it still remained. Patience smiled at the green-ish tint to her complexion.</p><p>“Because I helped clear it myself.” Vincent looked uncomfortable, standing up and facing away from the others. “A while back, but it should still be clear.”</p><p>“Another job for your rat bastard boss?” Valrie couldn’t help but make the dig.</p><p>“No. Before I started working for Moriarty.” He slung his rifle over his shoulder and checked his .45. “We should get moving. We don’t want to be caught outside at night.”</p><p>Patience jumped up, checking her rifle again. She considered for a second and then tapped Vincent on the shoulder, passing him her last spare magazine. She hoped they wouldn’t need to use any more ammunition. There didn’t seem to be anywhere to get any more. Even the raiders Gia had once hung around with had run out of ammo. She thought for a second and flipped the RoF to ‘single’. Bullets were now a precious resource.</p><p>Gia helped Valrie to stand and all four of them tried to mentally prepare for the next stage of their journey. Soon, Vincent began to lead them up the stairs towards the street and then on towards the next Metro station a block away.</p><p>Before his head even came in line with the top of the wall of the station steps, Vincent found himself blown to the side. An explosion on the other side of the wall sent a shockwave rippling outwards, causing their ears to ring and their insides to shake. Vincent shook his head and pushed himself upwards. Shaken, but unharmed.</p><p>Then they heard bullets flying. Lots of bullets. They pinged and spattered all around, sending metal fragments and shards of broken concrete down to shower upon the four travellers. They weren’t the targets, this seemed certain to Patience. She pushed Valrie and Gia’s heads down, shielding them with her own body, and ducking her own head, waiting to survive the onslaught and wondering who was shooting at who.</p><p>-+-</p><p>The noise deafened them all. Vincent, recovered enough from the shock wave of the blast, joined the other three, huddling together as more bullets flew and explosions rocked the very ground they crouched upon. Patience heard the unmistakeable burp of a mini-gun, firing hundreds of rounds a second, peppering the air above. It seemed like a full scale battle was being fought in the ruins above.</p><p>She raised her head in time to see a Super Mutant stomp into view at the top of the stairs. Raising her rifle, she prepared to fire until she noticed its attention focussed elsewhere, shooting a modified rifle away to the side. It roared in defiance, even as dozens of bullets ripped into its body, tearing off flesh, cracking bones and sending thick yellow blood spraying in all directions. It stumbled as one of its legs got hit, leaving it hanging by a thread of muscle and sending the monster tumbling to the ground.</p><p>Patience couldn’t tell how long the firefight went on, only knowing that Valrie and, especially, Gia were trembling in terror at the sheer force of the battle’s noise.</p><p>“What the fuck is going on?” Valrie screamed over the onslaught.</p><p>Patience didn’t know, herself. After the Super Mutant had appeared, she kept her eye and her rifle trained towards the top of the stairs, ignoring the noise and the ricochets. She had one magazine left and, if she had to, she’d go down fighting. But the noise and the gunfire came to an abrupt stop, only the whine of the mini-gun ratcheting down broke the silence.</p><p>Then they heard a stomp, stomp, stomp. Different from the lumbering footsteps of Super Mutants, but a steady, precise and heavy metallic footfall. Patience caught a look in Vincent’s eyes. He knew that sound. He put his hand on the barrel of her rifle and pushed it down wards. Then he spun his own rifle to his back and held his hands up in surrender. Patience didn’t ask. She took her hands from her rifle, letting it settle back against her chest, and raised her own hands, nodding at Valrie and Gia to do the same.</p><p>Within seconds a great, hulking, mechanical figure appeared at the top of the stairs. The figure held a mini-gun with ease, pointing it at the dead Super Mutant, thumb resting on the trigger. Then it turned towards the four of them huddled at the bottom of the stairs, its helmeted head showing nothing of the person underneath. Patience recognised the armour. She’d seen the same style on the dead at the Anchorage Memorial. Brotherhood of Steel.</p><p>“Knight Captain Hazel, we’ve got civs.” The voice, electronically filtered and processed, called out from the helmet. The mini-gun turned towards Patience and her companions. “Don’t move. Don’t even breathe.”</p><p>The armoured person soon became joined by another, this one with different colours and symbols etched into the armour and not wearing a helmet. The woman, somewhere in her fifties, had short cropped black hair with wisps of grey highlights, and sported a wicked scar down the entire right side of her face, causing her mouth to turn upwards at the corner giving her a permanent sneer.</p><p>“Look like raiders. Check them over and confiscate any Brotherhood property they’ve stolen.” The Knight Captain stopped before turning away and stared towards Vincent, his head down, staring at the floor. “Wait a minute. You, the man, stand up.”</p><p>“Fuck you, you god damned fascists!” Valrie had recovered from the terrifying nature of the battle, standing up and moving in front of Vincent. “We’ve done nothing wrong and you’ve got no fucking authority here.”</p><p>“It’s alright, you crazy old goat, they’re not going to hurt us.” Vincent stood up, still with his hands raised, and stepped in front of Valrie. He raised his eyes and stared at the Knight Captain.</p><p>“Well, I’ll be damned.” The Knight Captain stood in silence for a second, nodding her head, then turned to walk away. “Knights Kowalski and Bitterman, help Knight Foreman to take these people into custody. We’re heading back to base. Move out!”</p><p>“Now, just a fucking minute!” Patience caught Valrie before she could race up the stairs and before Knight Foreman’s thumb could press on the trigger of the mini-gun.</p><p>“Valrie, that gun just cut a Super Mutant to shreds. Do not antagonise them!” It was difficult, but Patience calmed Valrie down as two other Brotherhood Knights appeared, stomping into view.</p><p>The Knights ushered the group up the stairs, taking their rifles and pistols from them. Gia didn’t like losing her shiny laser, but there was little any of them could do.</p><p>Now, as Patience surveyed the aftermath of the battle, she saw why the battle had seemed so close. Two more Super Mutants lay dead on the other side of the wall where they had hidden themselves. If the Brotherhood of Steel hadn’t fought them, Patience and the others would have walked right into the group of three monsters.</p><p>The Brotherhood hadn’t had the battle all their own way. Three Knights were receiving treatment for injuries and another three lay on the ground, dead, their helmets removed, their armour battered and broken. Brotherhood soldiers stared at them as they passed, that empty, distant stare that warriors developed throughout history. The stare of people that had seen too much death.</p><p>The Knights guided them across the square, past a building where only concrete support beams remained and the broken floor revealed the basement below. A toilet bowl, incongruous in the surroundings, sat on a crumbling piece of floor clinging to side of one of the supports. Turning to the left, they entered an alley, passing big, rusted yellow dumpsters and soiled mattresses, bent and useless shopping carts and clusters of human skeletons.</p><p>The path weaved to the right after a short while and then the alley opened up to another area where the buildings had fallen into huge pules of rubble with almost no infrastructure left intact, apart from one building they headed towards. As they passed through this building, Patience noticed the school desks and lockers. She didn’t want to think about the skeletons she could see here, or how old they must have been when the bombs fell.</p><p>Exiting the school, they found themselves in a square with another brass globe and surrounding rocket, the same as near the Metro station. This one on a pedestal above a dried out fountain. Gia grabbed Patience’s arm, tugging at her and pointing up at the only building she had seen so intact. She could see three huge letters hanging on the front of the building. “GNR”.</p><p>“You know what this is?” Gia breathed, giddy, excited, still tugging Patience’s arm. “It’s the GNR building! Galaxy News Radio. Where Three Dog is!”</p><p>“If this is the radio station, what are these Brotherhood people doing here?” Patience looked back at Valrie, who shrugged, and then at Vincent. He looked slumped, almost as if he felt defeated. “Vincent?”</p><p>“The GNR building’s been an FOB for the Brotherhood for a while now.” Vincent glanced up the stairs to the building, passed the piles of sandbag defences and straight at Knight Captain Hazel, stood at the top of the stairs, staring right back at Vincent.</p><p>“Knights Kowalski and Bitterman, take the civs to the canteen, see they get some decent chow. Keep an eye on them, though.” Knight Captain Hazel turned to Vincent. “And you, Brother Vincent, in my office. I want a full debrief.”</p><p>Patience echoed the surprise of Valrie and Gia. Brother Vincent? Whatever happened now, it was clear that Vincent had not been completely honest. Not to them and, it seemed, not to his boss, Colin Moriarty.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>14</p><p> </p><p>The ‘decent chow’ turned out to be some kind of meat ground up and boiled in a stew. Patience picked at the food in the bowl while Valrie and Gia both wolfed it down like they hadn’t eaten in days. Gia even got herself a second helping and ate that as fast as she had the first bowl. Patience, herself, found herself too distracted. The last few hours had thrown up a number of things to think about, not least of which turned on who, exactly, Vincent was.</p><p>The canteen, situated on the second floor of the GNR building, had rows of tables and chairs and a hatch through to the kitchen area where Brotherhood soldiers wandered in to get their daily rations. Each and every one of the soldiers sat at least a table length away from the three women, pretending not to stare at the new arrivals and whispering among themselves.</p><p>Kowalski and Bitterman remained standing, still ensconced in their black Brotherhood power armour, weapons at the ready and not saying a thing to any of the three, even when asked direct questions. Patience didn’t know if they were prisoners or guests. Nothing she saw indicated either way. For certain, they weren’t trusted, but neither did she feel any animosity.</p><p>“I still don’t fucking trust him.” Valrie brought Patience out of her reverie, pulling Patience’s bowl of stew towards her and digging a lazy spoon into it. “So, he’s with the Brotherhood of Steel, or tied to them. He still works for that weasel faced fucker, Moriarty. You can’t tell me he hasn’t been doing what Moriarty has told him to, up to and including killing people. I know. That’s how fucking Moriarty works,”</p><p>“I don’t know. Does it matter?” Patience glanced over to the other tables and all the soldiers’ eyes slipped away. “It doesn’t change anything. I don’t know these people. I don’t know what they stand for. All I know is, I still have to get to Vault-Tec HQ. Everything else is someone else’s problem.”</p><p>“Now you’re fucking getting it!” Valrie stuck a thumb out towards the other people eating. “These fuckers aren’t the worst in the Wasteland, but they have their own agenda. Not our problem.”</p><p>“I’m going to steal one of their power armours.” Gia, her head down, giving a mournful look into her empty bowl, didn’t notice the sudden whipcrack turn of several soldiers’ heads at her words. “Then I can be a hero, like you.”</p><p>“Watch what you’re saying, Gia. I don’t think these people will understand your sense of humour.” She said that loud enough for everyone to hear, hoping they would think Gia was joking, rather than serious, as Patience thought the girl was. “And besides, I’m not a hero.”</p><p>“That’s not what I’ve heard.” This man, planting himself down in the seat beside Patience, didn’t look like a soldier. A thick, sleeveless jacket covered a white sweater. A grey beanie hat lolled upon his head and a pair of round, dark sunglasses adorned his eyes. An easy going smile framed by a well trimmed beard and a hand held out to shake. “I’m Three Dog and I’ve heard a lot about you, Sister.”</p><p>“Well, Valrie has been exaggerating things.” Patience shook Three Dog’s hand.</p><p>“Valrie! Hey, nice to finally meet you!” Three Dog leaned behind Patience to shake Valrie’s hand. “Thanks for all the news you send my way. If I had station merchandise, you’d get the whole damned lot.”</p><p>“No problem. Just doing my bit for the Good Fight.” Patience couldn’t be certain, but she thought she caught a slight blush on Valrie’s face.</p><p>“I’m Gia. I’m a big fan. A big fan!” Gia reached over the table, grabbing Three Dog’s hand and pumping it with both of hers. “Oh, god! I’m so excited, I think I just peed a little.”</p><p>“It’s nice to meet you too, Gia.” Three Dog laughed and then returned his attention to Patience. “You know, I thought you’d be taller.”</p><p>“I get that a lot.” Patience felt embarrassed at the attention. “I must be a disappointment after the crap Valrie’s been feeding you.”</p><p>“On the contrary. It just makes your story that more relatable.” Taking out a pack of cigarettes, Three Dog offered them around, lighting everyone else’s before his own. He leaned back in the chair, resting his arm on the table. “You’re big news and you’ve made a name for yourself beyond this little group of yours. I’ve been getting reports from Girdershade to Megaton and right here in the Downtown ruins. You can’t stop the signal.”</p><p>“Like I said, exaggerated.” Patience took a deep draw of her cigarette, released it and glared at Valrie. Valrie grinned and shrugged.</p><p>“You saved Sierra from raiders.”</p><p>“I caught them by surprise.”</p><p>“Stared down a horde of Super Mutants.”</p><p>“Something else was going on there. That wasn’t my doing.”</p><p>“Killed two Super Mutants by yourself and saved four people from god know’s what horror.”</p><p>“More luck than anything and I almost died.”</p><p>“Got your friends out of the Metro tunnels, safe and sound, through dozens of feral ghouls.”</p><p>“That was a group effort.”</p><p>Three Dog paused, rocking the chair back onto two legs. He watched Patience through a cloud of smoke and the dark lenses of his sunglasses, studying her. Patience still didn’t like the attention. She looked anywhere but at Three Dog, or Valrie, or Gia, but saw other people in the room staring at her. Their expressions had changed from thinly veiled animosity to interest.</p><p>“You really don’t see it, do you?” Three Dog dropped the chair back onto four legs and leaned in towards Patience, resting his elbows on his knees. “You really believe that bull you just told me. I’ve never known a more modest, self-effacing bullshit artist in my life. Hell, even the Lone Wanderer knew what they were. But you, you don’t even know what you are.”</p><p>“She’s a big damn hero is what she is.” Gia stared at her, admiration in her eyes.</p><p>Valrie had that look on her face. The one that said she was going to say something honest, whether you liked it or not. The canteen prickled with silence as everyone watched her. It was too much. She jumped up, sending her chair crashing behind her.</p><p>“I’m not. I’m not a hero. I’m not here to right wrongs or help people. I just want to find out who I am, where I came from and why I was found dying in the Wasteland. This, all of this, this is the real bullshit. I’m no-one. I’m not better than anyone. I’m not worse than anyone. I’m just ... just ...” She needed to get out of there. There was a door to the bathroom at the other end of the canteen and she barged her way through the Brotherhood soldiers, slamming the door after her.</p><p>“Well, she’s better at throwing a fucking hissy-fit than anyone else. That’s for fucking certain.” Valrie took another draw from her cigarette and winked at Three Dog.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“You're listening to the adventures of me, Herbert "Daring" Dashwood, and my stalwart ghoul manservant, Argyle. Today's episode: My ghoul has no nose.</p><p>“Remain calm, Argyle, old chum. These chaps haven’t killed us yet.”</p><p>“‘Yet’ is a big word, boss. Where are you dopes taking us?”</p><p>“The High Priest will want to talk to you.”</p><p>“The High Priest? Is this some kind of cult? And why am I tied up and my manservant isn’t?”</p><p>“Don’t worry, boss. You’ll think of something. These tunnels are winding around, I don’t even know which direction we’re going.”</p><p>“Look, Argyle, there’s some kind of room ahead. Maybe we can turn the tables with a bit more space?”</p><p>“Behold! The Great Ghoul and our High Priest.”</p><p>“Is that ... is that a statue ... of you, my faithful friend?”</p><p>Well, it’s something alright.”</p><p>“Ah, my flock have found you at last, oh Great Ghoul. The statue is, indeed, of you.”</p><p>“I don’t see the resemblance. The nose is all wrong.”</p><p>“Whatever do you mean, Argyle? The statue is you to a ‘T’.”</p><p>“Yes, you are the Great Ghoul. The prophesied one and we are yours to command.”</p><p>“You’ll do anything I say?”</p><p>“Anything, oh Great Ghoul.”</p><p>“Then the Great Ghoul commands you ... to kill each other.”</p><p>“Argyle! That can’t possibly ...”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, I’ll be gosh darned, Argyle. It worked! They’re all dead!”</p><p>“It was worth a shot, boss. Now, let’s get you untied and get out of this dump.”</p><p>“But, what about that statue? Don’t you want to know why they have a statue of you?”</p><p>“Nah. Like I said, the nose is all wrong. That ain’t me.”</p><p>“If you say so, old chum. If you say so.”</p><p>“Be sure and tune in next time for another exciting adventure of me, Herbert “Daring” Dashwood and my stalwart ghoul manservant Argyle!”</p><p>-+-</p><p>Patience emerged from the bathroom several minutes later. Everyone had left the canteen. Everyone except Three Dog, sat lounging still in the same chair, hands in his pockets. He said nothing, only pushing a chair around and inviting her to sit.</p><p>“You’re friends are being assigned cots for the night. Your buddy, Vincent, won’t be out of debrief for hours yet.” He waited for Patience to sit and then leaned forward, his elbows resting on his knees. “Look, I get it. You have your own thing going on, you don’t need the hassle of being raised up as a hero of the wastes. I get it.”</p><p>“Do you? Just days ago, I woke up with no memory of who I am in a country that I don’t remember. In my mind, there should be fields and trees. Kids playing in the parks. There should be colour and life and ...” She waved her hand in an aimless fashion then used the same hand to run fingers through her hair. She could feel tears forming, but she’d be damned if she started crying.</p><p>“And instead you found the Wasteland. You found bad things and bad people everywhere.” Three Dog’s voice soothed her, somewhat. He had a kindness to his voice that she hadn’t heard in a while. “You know, the Lone Wanderer was a lot like you. A vault dweller, dropped into the wastes without a clue what was going on. All they wanted was to find their father. And they did! But, along the way, they did some great things. Fought the Good Fight, even though that wasn’t what they set out to do.”</p><p>“I never set out to fight anyone.” She looked away, her hand covering her mouth, holding back those tears. “It all just happened.”</p><p>“Whether you meant to or not, you helped people and that’s a good thing, right?” He reached over, clasping her hand. “Sierra is alive because you didn’t think, you helped. Those four Wastelanders are alive because you didn’t think, you just did the right thing. Not everyone goes looking for the Good Fight. Sometimes the Good Fight comes looking for you. And you? You stand up. You say you didn’t want to do those things, but you did them anyway. That makes you a hero in my book.”</p><p>The tension of all the days since Valrie had found her had built up inside. She couldn’t relax. She couldn’t take any time to take anything in. It had all washed over her in a continuous river of desperation and violence crashing against a dam and she felt like she was drowning. She looked at Three Dog, his circular sunglasses removed and those soulful dark eyes watching her with such sympathy and the dam burst.</p><p>She couldn’t stop it. The stress of everything she had experienced poured out. Deep, wracking sobs lurched her shoulders. Three Dog gathered her up in his arms and she clung to him as the tears trailed down her face. He held her tight enough to be comforting, but not too tight to make her feel restrained. He gave her just enough of his own strength to supplement hers. </p><p>It took several minutes before Patience found herself able to let go. She pulled back from Three Dog and the radio man released her from his arms, looking into her eyes and smiling. She wiped her eyes with swipes of her fingers and gave a hiccuping half-laugh.</p><p>“Not so heroic now, eh?” She blinked a few times, looking up at the ceiling of the canteen.</p><p>“Biggest damned hero I ever seen.” He patted her hand and stood up. “Well, I got a radio station to take care of. Come see me before you go. Oh, and just so you know, I’m gonna keep talking about you. The Wasteland needs its heroes and its my job to give those heroes to the Wasteland. That’s how I fight the Good Fight.”</p><p>Three Dog left the canteen with an easy-going saunter, replacing his sunglasses as he left. The man had a way about him. Different from the persona he had over the radio. More reserved, yet more intense. Less overtly friendly, but more sympathetic and thoughtful. Patience guessed that was the nature of his chosen calling. No-one wanted to hear someone dour and quiet over the radio.</p><p>Seconds later, Gia returned to the canteen. At first it didn’t look as if she saw Patience, heading straight for the serving hatch into the kitchen. Seeing no-one around, she came over and slumped next to Patience.</p><p>“I was hoping to get more stew.” She didn’t notice the redness in Patience’s eyes or, at least, she didn’t draw attention to it. “You should see the beds! I swear, there’s barely any stains on the mattresses. I mean, like, hardly any! Not the good kind of stains, or the bad.”</p><p>“What’s a good stain?” Patience screwed her eyes trying to figure that out.</p><p>“You know!” Gia made exaggerated moaning sounds, thrusting her groin up and down while rolling her eyes. “The good kind.”</p><p>“You’re a strange little creature, Gia, but I like you.” Patience stood up, holding her hand out to the young ex-raider. “Come on, show me where my rack is.”</p><p>“It’s right there.” Gia stood up and made a sweeping gesture with both hands across Patience’s chest. “You can’t miss it. Trust me, no-one can miss that rack!”</p><p>“I meant my bed for the night and you know it.” Gia grinned and winked, grabbing Patience’s hand and leading her out of the canteen towards the dormitory area.</p>
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<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>15</p><p>Patience awoke as the Brotherhood night patrol returned, falling onto their cots fully clothed and exhausted. She suspected that they would have slept in their power armour if they could. Valrie and Gia remained fast asleep in their cots, Valrie curled into a fetal ball, mumbling in her sleep, and Gia, all arms and legs, stretched out with her covers dripping down to the floor.</p><p>She wandered down to the canteen, still in her underclothes, barefooted and grabbed herself a mug of something hot and brown that could have been coffee, if coffee tasted like machine oil. Ignoring her own grimace at the taste, she continued her wanderings, passing by the aid station, where several of the Brotherhood soldiers still received medical attention from the battle the day before.</p><p>Finding the armoury, she located her Chinese assault rifle and a maintenance kit and began to break the weapon down. She checked, cleaned and oiled everything, testing the spring for tension, checking the rifling of the barrel, before putting it all back together again and testing the action. She did the same for her sidearm. She began to sharpen the knife she had taken from the raider, back at Girdershade, when she felt a tap on her arm.</p><p>“They’ll already have done all that. SOP, even for ‘guests’ weapons.” Vincent looked worn out as he reached over for his own rifle. “But I get it. You check your weapon yourself, only you’re to blame if it fails.”</p><p>“‘They’?” Patience spat on the whetstone and began circling the blade. “Seems like ‘they’ is you, too. You kept that quiet, ‘Brother’ Vincent.”</p><p>Vincent dropped his eyes as he began breaking down his rifle. His movements came across as precisely practiced. Every step of the maintenance as if he had performed it a million times, yet even in that, Patience knew on an instinctive level that she was better than him, which caused her to wonder about her hidden past once more.</p><p>“I can’t talk about it. It’s classified.” He blew into the barrel and looked through it. “All I can say is that it’s for the good of the whole of the Capital Wasteland. I’m not the bad guy, here.”</p><p>“Seems to me you’re deep undercover. It’s something to do with Moriarty and I’d bet good money it’s to do with the information he wants from Vault-Tec HQ.” She continued sharpening the knife, slow, circular sweeps shaving the blade razor sharp. “I looked into that man’s eyes. I know the kind of creature he is. Before he took you on, you had to prove yourself.”</p><p>“It’s not like that.” Vincent paused putting his rifle back together, leaning on the workshop counter. “Sometimes you have to ...”</p><p>“Sometimes you have to kill someone to prove yourself?” She glanced up and saw an almost pleading expression on his face. “Because I’m pretty fucking certain that’s the kind of man Moriarty is. You may be doing something good, Vincent, but I’m also pretty fucking certain you’ll do anything to keep that cover, including killing me, Valrie, Gia, for that monster. My warning still stands. Anything happens to Valrie, or me, or Gia, and I’ll kill you before you even think about blinking.”</p><p>Patience looked down at her handiwork. All her weapons looked almost new, laid out in precise positions, ready to take up again. She didn’t look at Vincent as she left and he didn’t try to stop her. She was glad of that. Being part of the Brotherhood of Steel didn’t make her trust him any more than she already did.</p><p>She was certain he thought he was doing the right thing. That there had to be a good reason for him working for Moriarty, but it changed nothing. It didn’t make finding out about her past any easier. It didn’t make her stop checking every single person she passed and mentally targeting all their weak points. Or stop her from thinking Vincent couldn’t be trusted. It only meant that she had two reasons not to trust him.</p><p>Finding herself back at the canteen, she refilled her mug of faux-ffee, turned and bumped into Valrie. Patience always found it strange to see Valrie without that football helmet, hair all knotted and clumped, grey seeping into the fiery red. It seemed odd. Valrie looked her up and down, shaking her head.</p><p>“Put some fucking clothes on, for Christ’s sake.” Valrie grabbed a mug, poured out the dark liquid and drank it in one gulp, before pouring more out. “That’s fucking disgusting muck. Who makes this shit?”</p><p>“I think it’s gun oil mixed with dirt. Wakes you up, though.” Patience smiled into her mug, thankful to be talking about something more light-hearted.</p><p>“So does a fucking siren in your ear. Don’t mean I want that either.” She gulped down another mouthful. “So, how long we staying here? Shit beverages aside, it’s not so bad here.”</p><p>“I’m thinking we move out today. I don’t trust anyone here.” Patience didn’t even try to whisper it. She wanted them all to know.</p><p>“Not even Three Dog?” The older woman raised an eyebrow and Patience hesitated.</p><p>“Well, I might not distrust him, but he wants more from me than I can give.” She remembered his talk about fighting the Good Fight. That wasn’t her problem. “I think it’s best. You can stay. I can handle Vincent if I need to.”</p><p>“No fucking way, sister!” Valrie tried pouring more beverage into her mug, but she’d emptied the pot. She slammed the pot on the counter in disgust. “I’m staying with you. You don’t have eyes in the back of your head and ‘Brother’ Vincent won’t get the drop on you while I’m around.”</p><p>“Woohoo! Why do you tease me so?” Patience felt a sharp slap on her backside and spun around to glare at Gia. “Hey, if you’re gonna parade around half-undressed, I’m gonna take advantage.”</p><p>“I’m going to get dressed.” As she passed Gia, she lifted a warning finger and faked an angry look. “We’re heading out within the hour. Tell Vincent.”</p><p>She couldn’t find it within herself to be angry at Gia, even though the backside slap was not asked for. The girl made Patience smile and there were precious few things in the Capital Wasteland that could do that. Now, she only had thoughts for finding Vault-Tec HQ and her past.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Somehow, Vincent persuaded the Brotherhood of Steel to give them a hefty resupply of ammunition, despite it being a precious resource. Now dressed, Patience made sure everything was in its place and packed in balance. Her ammo pouches now full, her backpack filled with essentials like food and water. She checked the magazines in her rifle and sidearm. A habit that she didn’t mind feeding.</p><p>Valrie had, in all likelihood, refilled her pockets with a number of objects that had not appeared in her original inventory, but Patience wouldn’t be the one to tell the power armoured soldiers lining the halls of the GNR building. Gia, having snagged a holster for her laser pistol, tried to put on an air of seriousness incongruous to the itch of grinning at everything.</p><p>Vincent surprised Patience by not upgrading his weapons from the Brotherhood armoury. Most like because he didn’t want to explain to his ‘boss’, Moriarty, where he had found them. Although the scratch received from the ghouls in the Metro tunnels had now received stitches and dressing.</p><p>“Ready when you are.” Vincent seemed a little cowed, almost apologetic.</p><p>“Just a second.” Patience checked Gia’s pistol while she waited for one last person before leaving.</p><p>He soon arrived. Three Dog strolled up to them like he had all the time in the world, hands in his pockets, a blue beanie hat on his head instead of the grey one from the day before. He gave a lazy salute to the soldiers manning the entrance hall, but none returned the greeting. Reaching the group, he stood before them, taking them all in in silence for a second.</p><p>“I hope you’ve given what I said some thought. You don’t have to be a hero, so long as the people think you are. It’s important.” He reached behind his back, unclipping a handheld two-way radio. “Take this. Keep in touch. Tell me how things go? It’s only short range, but it should work almost anywhere in the city.”</p><p>He offered the radio to Patience, but she looked at it then returned her eyes to Three Dog.</p><p>“I’ll take it!” Gia reached for the radio, only for Valrie to slap her hand away.</p><p>“I’ll fucking do it.” Valrie took the radio and spirited it away into her coat. “Fight the Good Fight, right?”</p><p>“That’s right.” Three Dog held out his hand and Valrie shook it. He offered it to Patience and she only hesitated a second before shaking the man’s hand. Gia jumped into Three Dog’s arms, hugging him until he coughed to catch his breath before releasing him. “You all take care. Come back in one piece and don’t feed the Yao Guai.”</p><p>“Yao Guai?” Patience screwed up her forehead, raising her eyebrow.</p><p>“It’s just something I say on the radio. There are no Yao Guai in the city.” He winked at Gia. “At least I don’t think so.”</p><p>With that, Three Dog turned and left the entrance area, patting Vincent on the shoulder as he passed. Patience felt a pang of guilt for being stand-offish with the man, but she couldn’t get past his expectations of her. He kept mentioning this ‘Lone Wanderer’ as if they were something to aspire to, to emulate. Only because she also came from a vault (at least she and everyone else assumed so), didn’t mean she was the same as her near mythical predecessor.</p><p>“If he wasn’t, like, five hundred years older than me, I’d have done him. Right here, in front of everybody. He is so hot!” Gia flinched as Valrie’s hand swatted the back of her head. “Hey! I was just saying!”</p><p>Patience took one last look at the entrance area of the GNR building, replete with sandbag barricades, heavy weapons and power armoured soldiers. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to this world. Her eyes fell upon her three companions, all watching her, waiting for her command. She smiled at Valrie and Gia and turned toward the outer doors.</p><p>Outside, the sun carved lazy fingers of light through the ever-present haze. The yellow-ish colouring making the ruins look grim and foreboding. Patience didn’t like the idea of passing through the school again, with the awful, tiny skeletons, but she steeled herself, keeping her head down as she walked.</p><p>On the way towards the next Metro station, they passed a couple of Brotherhood patrols, their power armour stomping along on the broken and crumbling roads and sidewalks. None of them acknowledged the group this time, only watching in silence as they passed each other.</p><p>“As far as I can find out, no-one’s been back into the next station since me and my patrol cleared it out months ago.” Vincent walked beside Patience, cradling his rifle in his arms. “I don’t expect more feral ghouls to have moved in, but best to be prepared. Just in case.”</p><p>“I’ll assume the worst and feel pleasantly surprised if it doesn’t come to it.” They reached the alleyway leading back to Tenleytown station and, even though Brotherhood patrols seemed regular, Patience cleared the corner, sweeping her rifle around. “Gia, how much of the area do you know?”</p><p>“Some. I once went to that place with all the ghouls. The museum place.” She saw Patience’s questioning look. “Oh, no! Not feral ghouls. The other kind that don’t try to eat you. Some of them are quite sweet.”</p><p>“I couldn’t even imagine.” Patience led the way through the alley, remaining on alert. “So, you’ve never been near Vault-Tec HQ?”</p><p>“If I had, I’d have said. Why all the questions?” As they reached another corner, Patience paused to check the way forward again.</p><p>“Sorry. I just didn’t want it to be silent.” Patience urged Vincent to turn the corner. “It’s either talk to you, or ‘Brother’ Vincent, or listen to Valrie’s cursing every other word.”</p><p>“Hey! Fuck you!” Valrie poked a playful finger in Patience’s ribs. “I don’t curse every other fucking word. It’s every three or four fucking words. You don’t want it silent? Turn on your fucking radio.”</p><p>“Now you’re just cursing for the hell of it.” Vincent looked over his shoulder and grinned at Valrie.</p><p>“You just keep your fucking head forward, ‘Brother’ Vacant.” Despite the words, Patience got the impression the animosity towards Vincent had diminished a little bit from Valrie.</p><p>They had turned the corner, now, returning to the square with the Metro station entrance, the globe sculpture and the building with angel statues attached. Patience lifted her arm, switched on the Pip-Boy and started the radio, leaving it on low volume. She had taken to disliking the eerie silence of the city.</p><p>Apart from the occasional gunfire in the far distance, there were no other sounds. No traffic noise, no murmur of voices, not even the flapping of pigeon wings, scared into flight by errant footsteps. The city was ghost and they were trespassing in nightmare.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“We all remember the Lone Wanderer. They came into our lives looking for their father and ended up leaving the Wasteland a better place than when they found it.</p><p>They didn’t set out to be a hero, only someone, little more than a child, desperately seeking their father.</p><p>As they searched the Wasteland, they came into contact with people and gave a helping hand when they could and where they could. They became the hero we needed, but never thought themselves a hero.</p><p>Now another vault dweller has left the safety of their underground home. This time, searching for their past. The Beautiful Stranger searches the Wasteland helping out when she can and where she can.</p><p>Sound familiar?</p><p>She doesn’t think she’s a hero. I respect that. But it’s not the person that decides if they are a hero or not, it’s the people they save. It’s the people they help. It’s the people who see them perform unimaginable things. They’re the people who decide whether someone is a hero or not. They’re the people that look upon that person and see hope and a chance for life to be better because of that person they see as a hero.</p><p>The Beautiful Stranger, our Avenging Angel, has just left the GNR building. She’s heading out to find that past of hers and, maybe, she’ll end up helping other people out along the way. Maybe she won’t.</p><p>But, to this humble DJ, she’s a hero already. There are people alive today that wouldn’t be if it hadn’t been for her. Whatever she does, wherever she goes, that can never be taken away from her and we will always remember the good she has done.</p><p>Good luck out there, Stranger. I hope you find what you’re looking for but, forgive me if that hope extends to you helping out more of the people that need it, too.</p><p>This is Three Dog, watching from the sidelines and hoping. Always hoping.”</p><p>-+-</p><p>The entrance to the next Metro station stood almost two blocks from where they had almost found themselves overrun by feral ghouls. Set in a small square, with half-ruined buildings looming over the covering canopy, the slope to the rusted gates of the station gave a gentle introduction to the darkness ahead.</p><p>Vincent said this station, as of a few months ago, no longer had any feral ghoul infestation, but Patience never took anything for granted. She opened the gates, slow and steady, keeping the jangling and screeching to a minimum as the aged metal ground against the dust encrusted rail holding the gates in place. She saw Valrie’s cringing face and knew that the noise was louder than she hoped.</p><p>“Stay close, watch every step and don’t panic if anything happens.”  She looked each of her companions in the eye, but held Gia’s for longer. “And no fiddling around with machines.”</p><p>“In my defence, that was just once ...” Valrie slapped the back of Gia’s head, although the slaps seemed to be getting lighter, now. “Stop doing that!”</p><p>“I’ll stop hitting you when you stop doing and saying stupid fucking things!” Valrie gave a smug nod to Patience, indicating that she was ready even if no-one else was.</p><p>“Vincent. Take point.” Patience shifted to the side, aiming her rifle into the gloom of the station.</p><p>Vincent slipped through the open gate, sweeping his rifle towards the shadows and crumbling rubble that could hide potential enemies. Patience tapped Gia’s shoulder for her to follow, then Valrie’s. Once Valrie passed through the gate, Patience followed.</p><p>She considered closing the gate again, despite the noise it would make, but she felt having an accessible escape route to be more important than stopping anyone, or thing, coming at them from behind. Besides, they had seen the aggressive way the Brotherhood of Steel cleared the surroundings. It was unlikely there were many enemies left to follow them from this direction.</p><p>This station, though following a similar design, was different from the first one they entered. Patience couldn’t see any offices or bathroom doors, no ticket barriers, only an easy turn to the right and a gradual descent towards the concourse. Even from this distance, she could tell this station had suffered worse from the nuclear devastation.</p><p>Moving onto the concourse, Patience saw a huge pile of rubble sloping up from the twisted and bent rails at the ground up to a gaping hole in the roof, some thirty feet above. Two tunnels led off to the right. The first blocked be a crumpled, broken Metro carriage stuck between both walls of the tunnel.</p><p>The second tunnel appeared clear and Patience gave Vincent the go ahead to proceed. This tunnel branched off on a tight turn on their left and it was this direction that Vincent took. There were no carriages on this section of the track leaving them with little cover, only able to hug the wall close and hope they wouldn’t meet anything that could shoot at them.</p><p>Vincent stopped, crouching down, holding up his hand to halt the others. It didn’t appear to be an immediate threat. His rifle, still at the ready, was not aiming at anything coming their way. Instead, he cocked his head to the side and appeared to be listening.</p><p>“Trouble?” Patience caught up to Vincent and kept her rifle aiming down the tunnel. In the distance she could see feint lights flickering in the dark.</p><p>Somehow, lights still seemed to receive power. How that could happen, two hundred years after the nuclear holocaust, she couldn’t imagine, but it was a fact. These lights, however, she couldn’t tell from this distance whether they were still powered or from some kind of flame. Fire based lights could mean trouble.</p><p>Vincent put his finger to his lips then pointed to his ear and then down the tunnel. Patience dipped her head and turned it to the side to hear better. There was something making a noise, that was certain. What was less certain was what was making the noise. Or who. Patience urged them onwards, keeping low.</p><p>They soon reached the end of the tunnel finding themselves in a concourse much like the first one. A mezzanine level covered part of the concourse and, further down on the lower level, Patience could see a set of large, double-doors leading to the outside. That was their destination in this underground section.</p><p>The noises, however, were louder here. It sounded like people were fighting.</p><p>“I know that sound.” Gia, of course, ran towards a set of stairs leading up to the mezzanine level, taking two steps at a time.</p><p>Patience held in a furious growl and chased after Gia, Vincent and Valrie close behind. She bounded up the stairs. Reaching the top, she found Gia hiding behind an upturned table, reinforced with ripped, mouldy sandbags. Gia covered her mouth, holding in a laugh and pointed over the makeshift barrier.</p><p>There, on a filthy mattress, were two people clearly having sex.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter 16</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>16</p><p>The two lovers knelt, still naked, before Patience and her companions, heads down, hands behind their heads. They both seemed malnourished, almost to the point of being dangerously thin. The girl, her hair cut into a dual mohawk style and the boy with a single, complimentary mohawk, appeared non-plussed by the situation.</p><p>“Still shy in front of others, Bradley?” Gia crouched before the boy and poked his flaccid penis with the barrel of her laser pistol.</p><p>“You know these fuckers?” Valrie had already searched the area for anything she could collect, coming up empty handed.</p><p>“Oh, yeah. We were lovers.” Gia stood up, looking at Valrie. “Back when we were in the same gang.”</p><p>“Which one? The boy or the girl?” Vincent didn’t cover the two naked lovers, but still held his rifle ready to aim at the first provocation.</p><p>“Both.” Gia crouched again, cocking her head to the side. “They were never this thin before. So, where’s the rest of them, Lyla? Otis? Brindy? Lark?”</p><p>“Gone.” The girl, Lyla, looked up at Gia, her face blank. Drawn and almost half-asleep. Gia rolled the barrel of her pistol, urging the girl for more information. “They left when the Super Mutants started hauling off people. They left while we were stoned on Jet. We woke up, they were gone.”</p><p>Patience put her hand on Gia’s shoulder, then crouched beside her, resting her rifle on her thighs. She lifted Lyla’s chin and saw the discolouration around the girl’s mouth, the brown, chipped teeth. The girl looked at Patience as if she weren’t really there. Her eyes focussing on a point beyond the back of Patience’s head.</p><p>Beside the filthy mattress, that the two had used to have sex upon, Patience could see several inhalers littering the floor. She couldn’t remember hearing about this ‘Jet’ before, but she knew drug use when she saw it.</p><p>“Where did the Super Mutants take your friends?” She cupped the girl’s face. She was pretty, once. Now, the drugs had ruined her. “Do you know where? Are there many Super Mutants around here?”</p><p>“The Mall. They took them to the Mall.” The boy, Bradley, lifted his head for the first time. “Almost got me once. Dragged me all the way to the Mall and I got away. Played dead. I can play dead real good.”</p><p>“They come and go. Come and go.” The girl began swaying from side to side. “Sometimes they’re all out there. Sometimes they’re not. Sometimes I think they’re there, but they’re in my head. Screaming purple bubbles.”</p><p>Patience shook her head, standing up and pulling Gia with her. The ex-raider didn’t seem too upset at the state of her old lovers. In fact, she seemed to find it funny. Valrie looked at the two young adults, with their emaciated bodies and seemed to feel a genuine sadness for them. Vincent didn’t appear to have any feelings, either way.</p><p>“Seems the Super Mutants are everywhere.” She gathered them all into a circle, keeping their eyes on the two naked raiders. “Are we going to have trouble getting to Vault-Tec HQ?”</p><p>“I don’t know. It’s a long time since I patrolled that area and, somehow, the Super Mutants seem to be growing in numbers.” Vincent hooked a thumb towards Bradley and Lyla. “I don’t think we can take anything the Jet-heads say seriously. They could be right, could be wrong, could be thinking this is all a dream.”</p><p>“Valrie, you looked around. Have these two got any food? Water?” Patience could see nothing except the Jet inhalers and Bradley and Lyla reaching out to grope each other.</p><p>“Nothing. And I know what you’re thinking, but it’s a fucking waste.” Valrie turned Patience to look at her. “These fuckers are gone. They’re done. It’s sad, yes, but you leave food and water for them and they won’t fucking use it.”</p><p>“Hey, have you got Jet?” The boy reached behind, grabbing a Jet inhaler. He took a hit and passed it to Lyla. “You can fuck us if you got Jet. How about you, big man? You can fuck me, man, or I can fuck you. I’m a good fuck, either way. Yours if you got Jet. Or you can have her, she’s good. She likes it. You can have us both for Jet.”</p><p>Patience took off her backpack, removed some of her food and water rations, and left them in front of Bradley and Lyla. They didn’t notice. They were too busy groping each other and kissing, no longer aware of anyone else as the Jet burned into their brains. They fell to the mattress and were soon having sex once more.</p><p>“Come on. There’s nothing more to be gained here.” Vincent put his hand on Patience’s elbow, leading her back towards the stairs down to the concourse.</p><p>Patience didn’t see Valrie pick up the supplies she had left for the two drug-addled lovers. Gia moved in front of Patience and Vincent, walking backwards, spinning her laser pistol in her hand and ramming it into her holster, showing off, but Patience couldn’t find the energy to smile. The state of Bradley and Lyla had disturbed her and she wished there was more she could do for them.</p><p>“I can’t believe I used to sleep with those two. They didn’t even recognise me!” Gia spun around upon reaching the stairs and, placing a hand on each rail, slid down a few feet before breaking the slide with a tight grip.</p><p>“Did you used to do Jet, too?” Patience couldn’t help but look back towards the two lovers. “When you were with them?”</p><p>“Yeah. Everybody did. Not like that, though.” Gia changed tack and sat on one of the rails to slide down a little. “Only losers get that bad. No wonder the gang just left them.”</p><p>Patience couldn’t understand how little Gia cared. She did understand that this was a different world, with different values, different priorities, but to dismiss former lovers as if they meant nothing to you was a way of thinking foreign to her. She couldn’t imagine it. But, then again, she couldn’t imagine having a lover. Nothing in her Swiss cheese memory gave her any indication of whether she’d ever had a lover.</p><p>She didn’t even know what kind of person she felt attracted to. She thought Gia was pretty, Vincent rugged and handsome, Valrie had a certain attractiveness to her and Three Dog was, without a doubt, a good looking, magnetic man, but she didn’t have any sexual feelings towards any of them. She felt like a robot.</p><p>Seeing Bradley and Lyla together didn’t turn her on, not least of which because of their malnourished and drug ravaged bodies and faces, but it did stir a feeling in her. The need to feel loved. She doubted, however, that she would ever find anyone to love in this dark and lonely land. And, after a fashion, she hoped that she never would.</p><p>-+-</p><p>A short maintenance area led to the outside and a large open area that appeared to be an overground junction area for the Metro. Two lanes of rails criss-crossed each other before heading towards two more sets of large doors, now closed and blocked by rubble. A large, high canopy, overhead, allowed twinkles of murky light through the many shattered and broken panes of glass and, across from them, the ruins of the Statesman Hotel reared up behind a concrete walkway between two ravaged buildings.</p><p>“Keep your eyes open here. A lot of Super Mutant activity in these areas, usually.” Vincent hugged the wall of a building, training his rifle across the area. “Months ago, we could have just gone out the exit where the two lovebirds were, but that’s blocked now.”</p><p>“Cave-in?” Valrie looked over Vincent’s shoulder towards the hotel.</p><p>“No. One of the Brotherhood.” He glanced over his shoulder at Valrie, but looked away, a sad look in his eye. “She was being overrun by feral ghouls. Blew her fusion core to take them out. Saved all our lives.”</p><p>Patience could tell there was more to that story. The way he spoke. She wasn’t certain what it was, but that incident, for certain, had affected the undercover Knight. She filed it away. Something to ask him about later if they all survived. In the meantime, she scanned the open space before them with her rifle. Something caught her eye.</p><p>“Movement. One o’clock, high.” Not for the first time, Patience wished her rifle had an optical sight. Instead, she held out her hand to Valrie, knowing by instinct that the older woman would know what she wanted.</p><p>Indeed, Valrie placed the broken binoculars into her hand without a word. Placing the eyepiece to her eye, she traced the footbridge a hundred feet or so in front of them. Her fear became realised when she saw the unmistakable bulk of a Super Mutant patrolling the bridge, modified rifle in hand, looking at the ground below. She passed the binoculars to Vincent.</p><p>“Way I see it, we have two options.” She pointed towards two points. One with a Pulowski Preservation Shelter, a light blinking above its door, and the other, a concentration of broken, rusted vehicles, mounds of rubble and small structures. “We take up separate positions, draw its attention and I take it out. But, with this rifle, I’m not sure I can do it in one shot.”</p><p>“That’s a fucking stupid idea!” Valrie scowled at Patience.</p><p>“I’ll get its attention!” Gia began to jump up, but Valrie grabbed her, pulling her down to land on her backside.</p><p>“Sit the fuck down!” Keeping a firm grip on the struggling Gia, Valrie looked at Patience again. “What’s the second option?”</p><p>“We sneak by.” She looked up towards the Super Mutant, taking a slow, lazy turn at one end of the bridge. “Vincent? Thoughts?”</p><p>Vincent, his back to them all, continued looking through the binoculars. He shifted position to look around the corner, getting a better look at the terrain they needed to cross. Patience knew he had heard everything she had said and she waited for his response. Vincent clicked his tongue and held the binoculars out for Valrie.</p><p>“Both are difficult. You could make the shot, but that rifle wasn’t made for sniping and we don’t know how many others might be skulking around.” He used his hand to point to several places across the open space. “Stealth will take longer, but there’s several good pieces of cover. We go one-by-one. Once we reach the radiation crater, there’s enough cover for everybody, but that’s a whole different problem waiting for us.”</p><p>“Radiation crater?” Gia, still held by Valrie, attempted to stand up again. She didn’t get any further than last time. “Radiation turns you into a ghoul. I don’t want to become a ghoul!”</p><p>“Does this hurt?” Valrie took a grip of a piece of skin on Gia’s arm, pinched and twisted.</p><p>“Ow! Yes!” Swatting away Valrie’s hand, Gia rubbed her arm where a red welt already started showing.</p><p>“Then you’re not even fucking close to becoming a ghoul.” Ignoring Gia’s venomous look, Valrie turned her attention back to Patience and Vincent. “Go on. If she doesn’t want to come, she can go back to the fuckbunnies down in the Metro.”</p><p>All eyes fell back to Patience. Even Vincent appeared to defer to her judgement on the issue. She looked at the Pip-Boy on her arm. With that function she used before, the ‘VATS’, she felt almost certain she could target the best place to hit the Super Mutant with a kill-shot. The problem would be the relative inaccuracy of the rifle and the possibility of other Super Mutants being around to hear the shot.</p><p>The stealth option seemed the best option. If it were only she and Vincent attempting it. Valrie and Gia were non-combatants that she had, like a fool, allowed to accompany them. Patience knew they could be quiet, she’d seen it, but this was an entire other thing. They would need to be precise, co-ordinated, exact and silent. They weren’t trained for this. Then again, Patience wasn’t even sure she was, either.</p><p>She took another look at her companions before deciding. Vincent, stoic and resolute, ready whenever she was. Valrie, calm and loyal, but older and not built for this. Gia, eager and excitable, far too unpredictable for her own good. Patience chewed her lip, glanced at the Super Mutant patrolling above on the bridge and then looked at the course they would have to take across the open area.</p><p>“Alright. Stealth, then.” She grabbed Gia and Valrie’s hands. “Listen, neither of you have to do this. You can go back to your own lives. I won’t think any less of you. But, I can’t stress this enough, if you do this, you have to do exactly what Vincent and I say. Exactly! Go where you’re told to go. Stop when you’re told to stop. This isn’t just about keeping quiet. You have to become invisible. Do you understand?”</p><p>“I’m sticking with you. If almost being eaten by fucking ghouls didn’t stop me, you think this will?” Valrie patted Patience’s hand then set her face in an expression of grim determination, adjusting her scratched football helmet. It looked comical.</p><p>“I’m good.” Gia’s wide-eyed, grinning face didn’t foster any confidence in Patience, but she couldn’t fault the girl’s enthusiasm.</p><p>“You should send them back. They’re liabilities.” Vincent didn’t bother looking over his shoulder and he missed the vicious scowl Valrie bored into his back.</p><p>“Fuck you, Brother Vacant. If you think I’m leaving my girl alone with you, then you’re sorely fucking mistaken!” Giving Vincent the finger to his back, Valrie furrowed her brow, determined even more, and nodded to Patience.</p><p>She knew it wasn’t a good idea, but she had no right to tell anyone where they could or couldn’t go. She had given them the option. They weren’t stupid, not even Gia. They knew this was going to be dangerous. It was their choice. But, in the back of her mind, Patience still wanted to order them to go back. To return to their lives or, in Gia’s case, start a new, better one. She didn’t want to be responsible for them and she didn’t want to be responsible for their deaths, that was certain.</p><p>Tapping Vincent on the shoulder, she made her decision. Whatever happened, happened. Vincent, quiet as a breath, slipped out into the open area, heading towards the first piece of cover.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Vincent reached his second stop point, taking his time to relax himself before popping his head above the rubble to view a full circle. With the Super Mutant above walking the other way, Vincent signalled the way clear. It was time for Valrie to move towards the first stop, a thicket of dead bushes at the edge of the open area.</p><p>Satisfied that Valrie had hidden well enough, he scanned the way ahead again. The next piece of cover, an overturned car, its underside brown with rust, was another ten feet ahead. After that, the next place to hide would be another thirty feet away. The traffic barriers and security booth would be able to hold all of them, lessening the stretching of the party, but a long distance for Valrie and Gia to sneak towards.</p><p>As Vincent moved, Valrie waited and then moved to fill his place. Then it came to Gia’s turn and then Patience bringing up the rear. All four of them separated, now, and the Super Mutant on the walkway bridge above had turned to saunter back their way.</p><p>At this point, the rubble Gia hid behind offered the least amount of cover. Patience could see, even from a distance, that Gia breathed too hard after expending little effort so far. The girl, as brash and forward as she was, appeared to be on the verge of panic. Patience wished she could run across to the young woman, to comfort her and ease her worry, but the Super Mutant took that moment to glance over the wall of the walkway, through the broken chainlink fencing, down at the wide open square.</p><p>Patience raised her rifle. If the creature saw Gia, she would loose every bullet in her magazine at the brute and hope and pray that no others came running at the noise. Long, painful seconds passed before the Super Mutant ducked its head back from the wall and continued its patrol. Patience looked over at Gia, pressing herself against the mound of rubble, eyes closed, her face flat against the broken concrete.</p><p>Then Gia’s eyes flashed open, looking everywhere. She gripped the concrete slab she hid behind and looked as if she were about to run. That would be a disaster, for Gia if no-one else. By now, Valrie had joined Vincent within the security booth at the traffic barriers. Gia should be moving on to the upturned car. That didn’t look likely to happen. Patience had to do something and she had to do it soon, before Gia exposed herself to any more danger.</p><p>Patience took the chance, now, while the Super Mutant almost reached the point where it would turn around again. She dashed from the brittle, dead bushes, keeping low. She needed to be quick. Gia was about to move, her eyes locked upon the Pulowski shelter Patience had pointed to earlier. Gia would never make it. It was too far with nowhere to hide along the way.</p><p>She grabbed the young ex-raider in time, pulling her back down behind the rubble, her hand over Gia’s mouth as the girl struggled against Patience’s strong grip.</p><p>“It’s okay! It’s okay. I’m here.” She whispered in Gia’s ear and Gia gripped Patience’s arm. Gently, Patience turned Gia’s head to look into her eyes, locking on to them with her own. “I’m going to take my hand away from your mouth. Don’t make a noise, okay?”</p><p>Slow and careful, she took her hand from the girl’s mouth. Gia’s fingernails still dug deep into Patience’s arm, but she remained silent, her eyes never leaving Patience’s. Patience looked up towards the walkway. The rubble couldn’t cover both of them, Patience only hoped the creature didn’t look down at that moment. She raised a hushing finger to her mouth and Gia nodded, breathing short, quick breaths.</p><p>Patience glanced towards the security booth to see Vincent desperate to catch her attention. He made hand signs, giving her a message. Two more Super Mutants sighted, ground level, to her right, hold position. Patience squeezed Gia’s hand, waiting as Vincent looked through Valrie’s broken binoculars, away to her left. Then he passed them back to Valrie and signalled another message. Building to her left, use the window, meet other side. She gave him the thumbs up and looked towards the building.</p><p>“Gia, Sweetie, change of plan. Okay?” She glanced, again, up to the Super Mutant on the walkway bridge. They’d been lucky so far, but it wouldn’t miss them forever. She pointed to the building and the frameless window. “We need to go into that building. Do you think you can do that?”</p><p>“I’m not scared.” The tremble in Gia’s whispered voice said otherwise. “I’m not.”<br/>“I know. I know you’re not, Sweetie. And I need you to keep being brave, okay?” Patience rubbed Gia’s shoulders and squeezed them, then gripped Gia’s hand ready to pull her towards the building. “Ready?”</p><p>Gia, wide-eyed, never looked away from Patience, her breaths still too fast and short. Patience counted down with her fingers. Three. Two. One. Then she moved, keeping a tight grip on Gia’s hand. It seemed to take an age to get to the building. As soon as the wall came within her reach, she spun around, flopped her back against the wall and stirruped her fingers. Gia didn’t even pause, she thrust her boot into Patience’s hand and launched herself through the hole in the wall that once held a window.</p><p>The hole was too high for a standing jump. Patience had to back up a couple of steps before taking a running jump, catching the edge where the frame once sat. The concrete crumbled beneath her gripping fingers, but held as she hauled herself upwards and slid through the hole. Where her hand once was, the concrete broke and tumbled to the ground outside.</p><p>Patience dropped beneath the hole, her back against the wall, holding out her hand for Gia’s and making the hushing sign again. Gia, her back bent almost double, came and sat beside Patience, holding onto her arm with both of hers. After a few seconds, Patience chanced a look over the edge of the hole. The Super Mutant still pointed its weapon down towards the ground, its eyes making a sweep of the area. Seeing nothing, it scratched its head and continued its patrol.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chapter 17</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>17</p><p> </p><p>Vincent watched as Patience tumbled into the building. He didn’t like splitting up the group. Not least, because if he lost the vault dweller, he wouldn’t be able to access the information he needed from the Vault-Tec HQ computers. Without that information, the whole enterprise, going undercover, having to work for that son of a bitch, Moriarty, everything would be for nothing.</p><p>It was lucky that he found himself paired with the old scavenger. He felt certain the young girl, Gia, would still be making a fuss, even now, that Patience had to take the detour through that building. Valrie, at least, remained calm. He didn’t like it, no, but the alternative could be far worse.</p><p>“So, what now, ‘Brother’ Vacant?” Valrie stayed hunkered down against the door they had closed after Patience and Gia had made it to the building.</p><p>“I don’t know.” Staying low, he glanced outside.</p><p>The two Super Mutants seemed to be wandering around with no clear destination in mind. Walking from one side of the open area to the other. He had allowed himself to become distracted by the drama of Gia almost panicking and giving them all away. He knew it was a mistake to allow the raider to join them. Whether she followed them, or not, she was a liability, but the vault dweller couldn’t help herself.</p><p>That helpful nature of hers was going to get someone killed before too long. The Capital Wasteland didn’t suffer good people well. Good people often found themselves dead, while the bad ones thrived. Like him.</p><p>He knew he wasn’t a good person. Even found as a child and indoctrinated in the ideals of Elder Lyons’ brave new way never stopped him from being a bad person. He always retained that anger bred from seeing his parents killed and from learning to survive in a wasteland that wanted him dead. He wasn’t unique in that respect. The Wasteland wanted everything dead. The Wasteland epitomised death. Joining the Brotherhood of Steel never changed that.</p><p>But the Brotherhood gave him purpose and an outlet for his anger. At first fighting raiders, then fighting a losing, ongoing war with the Super Mutants and then being part of the historic destruction of the Enclave. He never did it for the same reasons his fellow Knights did. He did it for the rush of it. For the way it made him forget, for scant moments, how much he hated the world and everything, and everyone, in it. It gave him a release.</p><p>And after the Enclave? Nothing. Nothing sated his anger the same way. He needed a new release valve and the chance of going undercover, doing the dirty work that most of the Brotherhood balked at, was that valve. He volunteered. He found a way into Moriarty’s confidence. He did what he had to do to complete the mission. No matter what that entailed. And he enjoyed it.</p><p>Then this woman came along. Righteous, indignant, uncompromising, intelligent, taking on Moriarty at his own game and stopping him dead. Formidable. She was like a force of nature. A wind of change blowing through a half-closed door to the past. She had all the qualities, and more, that the Brotherhood prized. And, if he was honest with himself, the qualities he wished he had.</p><p>“We can’t just sit here, Vacant!” Valrie fished out a pack of cigarettes from that ridiculous coat, thought better of it and stuffed the pack away again. “We have to do something. Fucking anything!”</p><p>“I’m thinking.” He flipped to looking out of the other side of the booth. The radiation crater and the alleyway beyond were so close, he felt he could reach out and touch them.</p><p>“First time for everything.” Valrie stretched out her leg, rubbing her knee.</p><p>“Really? Now? You want to push my buttons right now?” There goes that anger again. “You know you’re protector isn’t here to save you from that big mouth of yours getting you killed? You know that, right?”</p><p>“Like she wouldn’t chase you to the ends of the fucking Earth if you did.” She sat there, looking at him with that smug half-smile and he wanted to strangle her. “I’m just fucking with you, anyway. Get a sense of fucking humour, why don’t you.”</p><p>If Valrie’s big mouth was going to get her killed, his anger was going to end up doing the same for him. He knew it. It was something he had known for years and tried hard to get past. His instructors at the Brotherhood knew it, spending hours trying to get him to focus that anger, to make it useful. No-one, especially himself, had managed to make it work.</p><p>He could fake being calm. Fake being stoic and unflappable, but, at all times, underneath whatever façade he projected, that white hot fury bubbled away in his gut, threatening to destroy everything he had built for himself. Everything that had dragged him far away from that hovel of a home and the bullet riddled corpses of his parents. They’re empty eyes staring at him. Accusing him.</p><p>“Gimme those binoculars.” He’d returned to the side where the Super Mutants were patrolling. “Something’s happening.”</p><p>Without argument, Valrie slapped the binoculars into his outstretched hand. Another Super Mutant had entered the area, bigger than the rest. Its skin a dark green, instead of the vomit yellow of the others, carrying what looked like a sword, almost as tall as it was. Flanked by two other Super Mutants, both carrying mini guns, ammo backpacks strapped to their backs.</p><p>The bigger Super Mutant shouted at the two on the ground, raised its sword to point to the one above and indicated it should come down from the overhead walkway bridge. Valrie had, by this time, sneaked her head above the edge of the window to have a look herself.</p><p>“Hey. Give me those a second.” She grabbed the binoculars and took in the scene outside. “Mother fucker. I know that guy. The big green one. Greener one. That’s the fucker who almost had me and Patience then walked away. They call it the ‘King’.”</p><p>She passed the binoculars back to him and he watched the exchange of words between the Super Mutant ‘King’ and its subordinates. At one point, the King reached out, grabbing one of the Super Mutants by the throat and lifting it, with ease, into the air. The King held the creature, its legs kicking ineffectually, for a few seconds before dropping it. Then the King waved his sword at all the Super Mutants present, started walking away and the others followed, clearing the open area.</p><p>“What the hell is that thing?” Vincent had never seen a Super Mutant cowed like that. Not even by another Super Mutant.</p><p>“I don’t know. Some kind of fucking Super-Super Mutant?” Valrie slipped back to the floor. “The worst thing is, it talks. Like a fucking human! None of this ‘Grrrr Aarrrgh Stupid Humans!’. It talks!”</p><p>“And it just walked away from you and Patience?” The Super Mutants were almost out of sight, so he slid down, sitting next to Valrie, handing her back the binoculars.</p><p>“More Patience than me. Took one sniff and that was it.” Valrie shrugged.</p><p>“Well, whatever it is, it’s taken them all with it. We’re clear.” Lifting his rifle back to his shoulder, Vincent moved to the door of the booth and opened it.</p><p>Now all they had to do was rendezvous with Patience and Gia. If they’d survived moving through that building.</p><p>-+-</p><p>As soon as she found her feet, Patience started scanning the area. The building was a wreck. Walls toppled in, floors and roofs fallen, desks and filing cabinets tossed, bent and broken. Computer terminals with screens cracked or shattered littered the area. Yet, with everything wrong with the building, there didn’t appear to be any enemies to deal with. She continued taking in the environment a little longer, to be certain.</p><p>Satisfied, for now, she lowered her rifle and turned to her companion. Gia’s well-being was important, for certain, but knowing they were safe had to take precedence over checking the young ex-raider. The girl, leaning heavy upon the cracked and crumbling wall beneath the window hole, looked better. Her breathing returning to normal, the twitching of her eyes, looking anywhere for escape, had reduced.</p><p>“Are you alright?” Patience checked the girl’s arms and legs, brushed her hair back, checking her eyes and then felt her pulse. Fast, but strong. “That was a little close, wasn’t it?”</p><p>“You called me ‘Sweetie’.” Gia’s chest rose and fell as her breathing deepened and slowed.</p><p>“I did.” Patience crouched, her rifle on her thighs, smiling at Gia, showing warmth to the girl. “Because you are sweet. And brave. You did well.”</p><p>“I hate Super Mutants! They ...” Gia dropped her head letting her hair cover her face. “They took everyone. Back before I joined the gangs. They took everyone, but I hid. I just hid.”</p><p>“Hiding is good.” She dropped beside the girl, sitting, back against the wall. It was clear Gia needed a little time. “I’d have hidden too. Those Super Mutants are really big.”</p><p>“But, you didn’t. You killed some. Three Dog said so.” Gia reached over, grasping Patience’s hand, locking their fingers together. “You killed them and I hid and now, just then, I ...”</p><p>“I had help.” She lied. Gia needed comforting, not Patience’s foolishness thrown in her face. “And I was terrified. I was so scared, my hands shook for ages afterwards. And I nearly died. If it hadn’t been for Vincent and Valrie, I’d be just another Wastelander killed by those things.”</p><p>“You were scared?” Gia raised her head a little.</p><p>“Oh, god, yeah!” She leaned her head back against the wall. “So scared! You wouldn’t believe! And I was just as scared out there, too. I’m still scared now.”</p><p>“You don’t look it.” Moving slightly, Gia rested her head on Patience’s shoulder.</p><p>“Sometimes, not looking scared is the bravest thing anyone can do. It helps other people that are scared to see someone who doesn’t look scared, even though inside they might be as terrified as everyone else.” Patience reached her other hand over, brushing Gia’s cheek and then kissed the top of her head. “Come on. Let’s pretend we’re brave together and get out of this building.”</p><p>Gia looked up into Patience’s eyes and forced a smile. Then she released Patience’s hand and began to stand. Patience looked out of the window hole but couldn’t see anything. The window was out of sight of the overhead walkway bridge. The Super Mutant up there couldn’t see her, but she couldn’t see it, either, and where the other two Super Mutants were was concealed by vehicles and rubble.</p><p>She turned to look at the building they were in. Her first look was for security, to make sure they were safe. This look was to find a way through and out the other side. She could see a window on the other side, but getting there would be treacherous. She couldn’t see any direct routes, the various holes in the floor and ceilings could provide a path, but it was going to be difficult.</p><p>Heading to the first obstacle, she aimed her rifle down into the darkness of the basement. She couldn’t see anything, but, after the Metro tunnels, she knew ghouls liked the dark places. The last thing she needed was to fend off another ghoul attack, especially without Vincent to help. Satisfied, she continued to a section of the ceiling that would lead up to the next part of their journey through the wrecked building.</p><p>Finding an upturned desk, she pulled it across, underneath the hole. With a little effort, she set it back on four legs, pushing her weight against the top to test it could hold them both. Helping Gia up onto the desktop, she swung her rifle behind her back, climbing up beside her. Even with the desk, Gia wouldn’t reach the edge of the gap. She knelt on one knee.</p><p>“Climb up. You should reach from my shoulder.” Gia did as Patience told her. That was good. The girl was starting to learn.</p><p>Holding on to the edge, Gia pulled herself upwards, lifting a leg and swinging it up and onto the side, dragging herself up and to safety. She spun around on her belly, holding both her hands down into the gap for Patience.</p><p>“Grab my hands.” Gia chanced a glance at her surroundings.</p><p>“No, it’s okay. Move back.” Gia furrowed her brow, but shuffled back, away from the edge of the gap.</p><p>Patience didn’t know how she knew, but she felt certain she could jump up to the ceiling gap. Bracing herself, she launched upwards, catching the edge of the gap with ease and pulling herself up with little effort. As soon as she made it over the edge, her rifle found its way into her hands once again. She felt like a machine. As if everything she did, everything she could do, was hardwired into her mind.</p><p>The next section looked like it would be easier. All they had to do was navigate across the building, passing over small gaps to little island-like sections of the floor congregating around the foundational pillars of the building.</p><p>Patience led the way, crouch walking, setting her boots on each spot with care, placing only a small amount of weight there until she felt sure it could hold them. Every time she reached a new, stable spot, she would turn and urge Gia to follow, watching the girl close, ensuring she copied her movements exactly.</p><p>Gia did well. Not moving too fast, not moving too slow. Taking time to move across the sections of uncollapsed floor. They didn’t have too far to go, now. Only two more ‘islands’ and then a small drop to the floor below to reach the window and they could leave and make it to solid ground. Gia, growing in confidence, smiled as she crossed another gap.</p><p>The cracking sound reverberated through the building setting Patience on higher alert. Gia’s smile dropped as she looked down at her feet. Her eyes raised towards Patience. A hand reached.</p><p>And then floor collapsed, sending Gia falling.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Her reaction came without any hesitation. Diving forward, sliding on the rubble strewn floor, hand outstretched. She missed.</p><p>The slide arrested too early. Gia had already disappeared beyond the line of the remaining floor and Patience’s clutching, stretching hand would never have caught the girl anyway. She slapped the floor and howled a noise almost inhuman. Still laid on her stomach, she edged forward, creeping towards the ragged edge of the hole, hoping, praying, that Gia hadn’t fallen too far.</p><p>The floor still creaked, but didn’t move as she reached the edge, taking a cautious look below. She could see Gia, sprawled, unmoving on the floor below, one leg dangling over a hole leading down into the darkness of the basement.</p><p>“Gia?” She could hear the slight crack in her own voice, mingling with the sound of dust and debris falling around her young friend. Her young friend that still showed no sign of life. “Gia, if you can hear me, don’t move. Just stay still, okay? I’m coming down. Just don’t try to move.”</p><p>She looked around and below. She couldn’t drop down from here, the tiny space where Gia laid seemed far too small to land upon and not hit the girl. The section of floor Patience laid on didn’t feel safe, either. At first it didn’t move, but now she felt an almost imperceptible shift and heard another painful creak.</p><p>There, to the right, she could see both a part of the floor closer to a support beam and, below that, a section of the lower floor with enough space to drop to. With one last look down towards Gia, Patience began the slow, careful crawl towards the concrete pillar. She had to choose between taking her time to be safe and moving fast enough to get to Gia as soon as possible.</p><p>Reaching the pillar, she dripped her legs over the edge, slipped down, gripped the edge of the hole with her fingers and then dropped, falling to a crouch to lessen the adding of her weight to the floor. It held. Now she had to reach Gia. She moved slow, crouching, testing each step before putting her weight down. Getting closer and closer, dust continuing to fall around her.</p><p>Upon reaching Gia, she found the girl’s eyes wide open, staring upwards. Patience feared the worst until the girl’s eyes flickered towards her, catching her movements in the periphery. Patience almost cried, reaching out slowly, grabbing Gia’s arm and pulling her back towards herself, away from the edge of the hole to the basement.</p><p>“Patience!” Gia wrapped her arms around Patience’s neck and hugged her tight, burying her head in Patience’s shoulder. “I did what you said. I didn’t move. I thought I was going to keep falling.”</p><p>“You’re alright now. I’ve got you.” She backed them both away from the hole, reaching a still-standing section of wall. Feeling more comfortable and safe, Patience began checking Gia, testing for broken bones, cuts, blood. Apart from a large bump on the back of her head, she seemed otherwise fine. “How do you feel?”</p><p>“My head feels cloudy and I feel tired. Like I could fall asleep.” Patience looked into Gia’s eyes.</p><p>“You might have a concussion.” She couldn’t really see that well, too much shadow and not enough light reaching them. “Do not go to sleep! No matter what, you stay awake. You hear me?”</p><p>“Okay.” Gia rolled her eyes and then looked back towards the edge of the hole to the basement. “I think there’s something down there. As I was falling, I kind of spun around. I think I saw something.”</p><p>Patience knew better than to dismiss anything. In her short time in the Capital Wasteland, she had learned that horrible things could come from anywhere. Especially the dark places. Hushing Gia with a finger to her lips, Patience swung her rifle to the front and crouch walked to the hole. Looking down, she couldn’t see anything beyond vague shadows. The light from outside making little impression on the building’s basement.</p><p>She had an idea. Lifting her arm, she switched on her Pip-Boy and selected the ‘VATS’ option. Once she did, the words ‘VATS Activated’ blinked on the screen. She pointed her arm down into the hole and a red beam of light shot out, moving so fast it seemed to make a continuous red line, moving up and down the area, then across from left to right. When the light blinked out, she looked at the screen.</p><p>“Human, one, deceased and ‘Unknown’, seven, deceased?” She frowned at the screen, then remembered something she had seen in passing. A flashlight option.</p><p>Setting the Pip-Boy to ‘flashlight’ mode, a beam of bright, white light shot out from the same place the thin red beam had appeared from, illuminating the whole area below. She gasped at the first thing she saw. A set of Brotherhood of Steel power armour, the rear opened up like the petals of a black, metal flower, a mini-gun and large ammo pack beside it.</p><p>Surrounding the power armour, she could see eight bodies. Seven ghouls and one human. The ghouls looked cut to pieces, bullet holes in them and several with body parts ripped off. The human, still in grey underwear, lay clutching at her throat, her leg bent at an odd angle. The woman looked emaciated, as if she hadn’t eaten for a long time before she died.</p><p>Patience couldn’t understand. It looked like the woman had starved down there. She felt certain that the heavy power armour would find it difficult climbing out of the hole, and the twisted leg of the the Brotherhood member showed that she either tried climbing out and failed, breaking her leg, or her leg had broken while fighting the ghouls.</p><p>Yet, Patience had heard the Brotherhood Knights communicating by radio. Why didn’t this Knight use hers? She had an idea. She switched the Pip-Boy radio on. The signal crackled and hissed, but she could still hear the music. Reaching her left hand down into the basement, the signal disappeared.</p><p>Kneeling down, she trained the flashlight on the edge of the hole and saw the brittle concrete sandwiching a thick piece of metal. Lead, she surmised. The basement was, in all likelihood, meant to for use as a fallout shelter for the building. The Brotherhood Knight had fallen in, fighting the ghouls, couldn’t climb out and couldn’t radio out either, eventually starving. What a horrible way to die, she thought.</p><p>“Come on. Let’s get out of here.” Patience returned to Gia and began looking for a way over to the window and their escape from the crumbling building.</p><p>“What was down there? Ghouls? They’re horrible are ghouls!” Gia almost began to move over to the hole, her flighty nature returning sooner than Patience expected. Patience held her arm before Gia got far.</p><p>“Yep. Ghouls. Dead ghouls and a dead human.” She spotted a path to the right that would not take much navigating. A couple of wide jumps, but nothing more. “A Brotherhood of Steel Knight. I’ll tell Vincent about her and he can get his friends to recover her body and armour. Meanwhile, we’re leaving. Or do you want to fall down another hole, Alice?”</p><p>“I’m Gia, not ‘Alice’. Gia!” Gia pointed to herself, saying her name slow as if explaining to a child. “Did you hit your head as well?”</p><p>“It’s from a book. Alice falling down the rabbit hole.” Gia looked blank at that. “From ‘Alice In Wonderland’? You never read that book?”</p><p>“What’s a ‘book’?” Gia wasn’t joking, either. The non-plussed look she gave Patience was genuine.</p><p>“Never mind. I’ll show you one day.” Patience pointed in the direction of the window out. “Right now, we’re getting out of here.”</p><p>Patience wished they could have used this route before, remaining on one level, but they had to pass a huge gap in the floor to get to this point and the only way to do that was the way they had used. They reached the exit window much faster than they had moved before and, after making a good examination outside, Patience boosted Gia through the window and soon followed her outside.</p>
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<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Chapter 18</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>18</p><p>The window led to an alleyway with only one direction open. That direction, Patience breathed in relief, was back towards the street upon which was the original way they were aiming for. She took up position at the corner of the building and peeked out.</p><p>Across the street and back half a block, she could see the radiation crater that Vincent had pointed towards. A large hole in the ground that fell far below her line of sight, with vapours of some kind drifting upwards, adding to the hazy atmosphere. She wondered how it could still be emitting radiation after two centuries, but she doubted that Vincent would call it a ‘radiation crater’ if it wasn’t still radioactive. Once again, it made her wonder if the Chinese had developed some kind of strange new form of nuclear weapon back in the twenty-first century.</p><p>She felt, rather than saw, Gia slump against the wall behind her. Turning, she caught the young girl before she toppled over. Helping her to sit down, she looked into Gia’s eyes once more.</p><p>“Gia! Do not fall asleep. That’s an order.” She lifted Gia’s chin and saw the girl’s face, bleached and sickly.</p><p>“I just feel a little woozy.” Gia’s head flopped to the side and Patience knew she needed to get her moving. The last thing Gia needed was to fall asleep.</p><p>Taking one of the spare magazines for her sidearm, she handed it to the ex-raider.</p><p>“Listen. I need you to do something and it’s very important. Okay?” Gia’s eyes appeared unfocussed, but she smiled up at Patience. “See this magazine? I need you take all the bullets out to check them and count them, then put them all back in again. Okay? Count them out loud when you take them out and then count out loud again when you put them back. Can you do that?”</p><p>“I sure can. ‘Cos I’m smarterer than you think I am, boss lady.” She slurred her words a little, but took the magazine. It took her a second to get her fingers working properly, but she slipped the first bullet out. “That’s one. One bullet.”</p><p>The reason she gave Gia the task was to keep her mind occupied. If she was thinking and counting, she was less likely to fall asleep and Patience simply did not have the medical expertise to deal with a concussion. The other reason was to make sure she could hear that Gia was still awake as she tried to spot Vincent and Valrie.</p><p>Once again, Patience popped her head around the corner only to find her vision blocked by something running towards her. Without even thinking, her hand dropped to her sidearm. With the figure so close, she wouldn’t be able to raise her rifle fast enough. Her pistol could be out of its holster and fired from the hip much faster.</p><p>“Hey! Hey! Woah!” It was Vincent, suddenly wheeling to the side out of the pistol’s line of sight, his arms raising in surrender. “It’s me!”</p><p>“Fucking idiot! I could have killed you!” She holstered her weapon and turned back towards Gia. The girl’s counting had slowed. “Where’s Valrie. If she’s hurt, so help me ...”</p><p>“She’s fine. She’s hidden over the way. I saw you look out a second ago.” He looked down towards Gia and frowned. “What’s wrong with the kid?”</p><p>“She fell. Hit her head. I think she’s got concussion, or worse.” Vincent crouched down beside Gia, put both hands on her head and traced his fingers under her hair.</p><p>“That’s a hell of a bump! I could give her a stimpak, but that would be overkill.” He rested his elbow on his knee and rubbed his chin with his other hand. “I know what would keep her awake until her head settles! Mentats. I’m pretty sure the old mouth has some in her coat. Help me carry her.”</p><p>Together, they managed to stand Gia up, wrapping the girl’s arms across each of their shoulders and using Vincent’s rifle as a seat. Patience took a quick look out on the street before leading the way. They took their time navigating the rubble strewn street, weaving between broken and twisted automobiles, until they reached the other side.</p><p>As soon as they neared the radiation crater, Patience heard a crackling sound emerge from the Pip-Boy she had forgotten to turn off.</p><p>“Geiger counter?” Vincent huffed as they carried Gia down the side of the crater. “Don’t worry too much. As long as you don’t go in the crater, the radiation up here is negligible.”</p><p>“Nice to know. I’d still like to get the hell away from it, though.” She took a look into the crater, but the hole fell deep into the Earth, far beyond the city foundations.</p><p>They soon reached an alleyway leading off to the side and the crackling of the Geiger counter lessened and then stopped. Rushing to a ninety-degree corner, Vincent brought them to a halt in front of a pair of yellow dumpsters. With care, they set Gia down upon the ground, the girl’s eyes almost closed. Vincent lifted the lid of one of the dumpsters revealing Valrie inside.</p><p>“About fucking time! Next time, you get to sit in the fucking trash. Asshole.” Valrie threw a leg over the edge of the dumpster and, with a little help, clambered out. She saw Gia, sheet white and almost unconscious. “Oh no. What happened?”</p><p>“She hit her head, probably concussed. Vincent says you have something called ‘Mentats’ that might help?” Valrie didn’t even protest, she rummaged around inside her coat and pulled out a metal box, faded green art and yellow letters on the top.</p><p>“Sure. Sure. They’ll wake her up alright.” Opening the box, Valrie fished out two yellow pills. Holding Gia’s cheek, she pressed one and then the other into the girl’s mouth, lifting her chin and rubbing her throat until Gia swallowed. “It’ll take a few minutes to kick in, but then, hoo boy, her mind’ll be sparking like it’s mainlining electricity.”</p><p>Patience nodded, smoothing back Gia’s hair, rubbing her forehead with her thumb. She leaned in and kissed the top of Gia’s head, then stood up, taking Vincent’s arm. She pulled him to the side and ran her fingers through her hair, trying to decide how to tell him what she had seen. There was no better way than to tell him.</p><p>“Listen, in that building. We found something.” She pinched her bottom lip. She had no idea how he would take the news. Would he care? “We found one of your Brotherhood friends in the basement. Dead.”</p><p>“How could you tell? If their fusion core had run dry, they probably couldn’t move ...” She put a hand on his chest and told him what she saw. The ghouls, the open power armour, the broken leg, the way she looked starved. “Shit. That’s no way to die. I mean, we’ve lost people, a lot of people, but to die like that. Shit.”</p><p>“I’m sorry.” Patience put her hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “If it helps, she took out about seven ghouls before she died.”</p><p>“It’s alright. Part of the job. At least the Brotherhood can get her body back.” He slipped out from under Patience’s hand and scratched the back of his head, then he looked over at Gia. “That’s if we live through this and get back to GNR.”</p><p>Patience understood that feeling. She looked at Gia, herself, watching the young girl begin to stir, her head starting to lift, colour returning to her cheeks. Valrie turned round and gave Patience the thumbs up and a wink. Patience, however, couldn’t help but feel concerned. Several times, now, Valrie and Gia had almost died, all for Patience’s need to find out about her past.</p><p>How long before she lost one of them?</p><p>-+-</p><p>Gia started to look better. Much better. Colour had returned to her cheeks and she seemed to have regained control over her body. A quick look into her eyes showed both pupils dilated, although she didn’t seem to be blinking as much as she should and her eyes darted around as if she were trying to see everything. Patience wondered if the Mentats had brought them another problem to take over from the concussion.</p><p>“So, then I looked down and it was like everything went into slow motion and I couldn’t do anything but watch as the floor just kinda gave way and then I fell and it felt like I was falling forever and then I was spinning in the air, like this,” Gia’s words tumbled out of her mouth as she described to Valrie what had happened in the building. She threw her arms out wide and pinwheeled where she stood, spinning around and around. “Then I hit the floor below, like, wham! And then I must have blacked out, or something, ‘cos then Patience was right next to me, pulling me away from the edge of another hole and she was all, like, ‘I got you’, and I kinda ...”</p><p>“Hey, I know you’re mind is on fucking fire, right now, but you have to get a hold of yourself, kid.” Valrie, holding onto Gia’s shoulders, tried to get the girl to calm down. “You need to breathe, breathe deep and try your best to relax.”</p><p>“Ooh! And I saw one of those power armour things as I fell.” Gia pointed at Vincent, wagging her finger, fast and agitated. “And Patience laid down on the floor and made that thing on her arm shoot out this red light and it went voosh, voosh and told her there were bodies down there. Dead bodies. And she was all ‘I see power armour’ and I wondered if she was gonna climb down and, like, pick it up, or something. Oh! And before we went into the building ...”</p><p>Vincent shook his head as Gia continued rambling. Patience understood his thinking. With Gia like this, there was no way they could continue on towards Vault-Tec HQ. She was being too loud, too hyperactive. That kind of thing would be like a spotlight on them all.</p><p>“Listen, I’m glad she’s feeling better, but she’s going to get us all killed if she doesn’t calm down.” Vincent had already moved from one end of the alleyway to the other end, twice, checking to see Gia hadn’t called attention to them. “If there are Super Mutants nearby, they’re going to hear her.”</p><p>“And what do you suggest we do? Leave her here? Alone?” She understood his thinking, but she couldn’t agree with it. “Or, do we leave Valrie with her? That’ll be two untrained, mostly unarmed people out here while we go into the HQ. Or, perhaps, one of us should stay, hmmm?”</p><p>“Neither of us can stay with her. I need to get the information for Moriarty, and that Pip-Boy of yours is the only thing that can help us get it.” His head snapped around as Gia made another noise to illustrate something she said to Valrie.</p><p>“Exactly. And I’m not leaving Gia and Valrie out here alone.” Patience looked over to Gia who didn’t seem to have enough fingers to describe something to Valrie. Valrie glanced around, raising her eyebrow. “We’ll give her a few minutes. This is probably just an initial rush. You head out and do some recon ahead. See what we’re up against next.”</p><p>Vincent tightened his lips for a second, then nodded. He took one last look at Gia, then set off down the arm of the alleyway towards the Vault-Tec HQ. Patience smiled. She caught the look in Vincent’s eyes. He felt annoyed, that was for certain, but he also failed to hide the genuine concern he felt for the girl.</p><p>Patience could understand that, too. They’d only known her for a day, or so, and the girl had already found a place in Patience’s heart. Brave, loud, full of a zest for life, funny. Patience couldn’t imagine the girl not being around. Battles and being in terror had a way of doing that, bringing people together. Making strangers in foxholes the very best of friends.</p><p>“How are we doing over here?” Patience crouched beside Valrie and Gia.</p><p>“She’s getting there. Fucking Mentats. It’s like having adrenaline pumped into your brain.” Valrie clicked her fingers in front of Gia’s face as the girl tried catching something that didn’t exist from the air. “Still, it’s a damn sight better than the girl fucking dying.”</p><p>“You! You called me ‘sweetie’. I liked that. Not sexually, ‘cos your, like, a million years old, you know? But I liked it. ‘Sweetie’. ‘Sweetie’. ‘Sweetie’.” Gia said the last three ‘sweetie’s’ in different tones of voice, one high and two progressively lower. “Not that you aren’t sexy, because, wow! You totally are! Have you seen your ass? You should! I could bounce caps off that ass.”</p><p>Valrie tried to stifle a laugh into the crook of her arm, glancing towards Patience. It was funny, Patience had to admit. She didn’t know whether to feel insulted or flattered and settled on bemused instead while trying to stop Gia reaching around to pinch her behind.</p><p>“This is getting there?” Patience pointed towards Gia, who seemed to have forgotten how to open her eyes and her mouth at the same time.</p><p>“You should have heard her a minute ago while you and Vacant were talking. She swore blind there were Bloat flies buzzing around her head singing ‘Meet me in St. Louis’.” Valrie pushed her football helmet back. “Where she heard that, I have no fucking idea. Three Dog doesn’t play it, that’s for sure.”</p><p>Gia did seem to be calming down. If only a little. She had stopped taking so fast her lips couldn’t keep up and her eyes did seem to be moving around in a much less frantic fashion. If she continued calming down at this pace, they should be able to move out within a few minutes, but that would bring other problems.</p><p>She feared the possibility of more Super Mutants. Here, deep inside the ruins of downtown D.C., the chance of a running battle with the outsized monsters caused her a great deal of concern. There were far too few places to take cover. Far too few spaces open enough to take advantage of being faster than the hulking brutes. Tight spaces worked to the advantage of those with longer reaches and getting in close to fight would be pointless against something that didn’t feel pain the same way as humans do.</p><p>So many factors worked against them. The only factors she had going for her were her Pip-Boy’s ability to mark out targets on her enemies and the training that she didn’t remember taking but, she felt so happy to know, came as natural as breathing. Those had helped against two of the creatures attacking at separate times. If more attacked, at the same time? Patience wasn’t so sure they’d get out of that alive.</p><p>She spotted Vincent returning from his recon. Standing up to meet him half-way, she saw that he appeared puzzled, rather than concerned, resting his rifle over his shoulder in a lazy, lackadaisical fashion.</p><p>“You look confused. What did you see? Aliens?” It was an inappropriate joke, but she said it anyway. She’d spent far too much time around Valrie.</p><p>“No. It’s ... unexpected. Yeah. Unexpected is the best way to describe it.” He looked down at Gia and smiled seeing the girl had calmed down.</p><p>“I take it, it’s not bad out there, otherwise you wouldn’t be so relaxed.” Patience frowned when Vincent shrugged and raised his eyebrows.</p><p>“No. It’s nothing. I mean, almost literally, nothing. I was worried that there’d be a whole bunch of Super Mutants back there, but there’s just nothing.” He scratched the back of his neck and half-turned back the way he came. “You should see for yourself.”</p><p>Valrie waved her away as soon as Patience looked. Gia would be fine, the older woman was saying, go. Taking a grip of her rifle, Patience followed Vincent down the alleyway. He may have relaxed, but something told her that, whatever training she had undertaken, relaxing in the field was something dead people did.</p><p>-+-</p><p>They edged out of the alleyway taking careful, measured steps into the square. The first thing Patience saw was the large, four-sided statue directly before them. Two of the heads had fallen to the ground, reduced to rubble adding to the large amount that already littered the area. As Patience circled around, she saw the remaining two faces. Grim, stern faces that would once have looked down upon the many passers-by like disappointed gods.</p><p>Beyond the statue, they found several sandbag walls, built up into a square formation, within which Patience could see a number of large, heavy treaded tyres that almost looked like seats and a metal barrel, still smoking from a fire that had been lit some time before.</p><p>Patience could see string bags, tied up and dumped in a pile outside the sandbag square, where she could see body parts mashed and crushed together inside. Arms, legs, heads, torsos, ripped apart and stuffed, without any ceremony whatsoever, into sickening bags of gore.</p><p>She heard retching behind her. Turning, she saw Gia’s face turning pale as she held a hand to her mouth, staring at the gore bags. Giving Valrie a look, the older woman guided Gia away to the side, out of sight of the horrific display. Gia had begun acting more clearly, but, strung out on the Mentats, seeing something that terrible must be even more awful for her.</p><p>“There’s blood over here. Super Mutant blood. But I don’t see any shell casings.” Vincent led Patience onto the street a few feet away, pointing at the ground with his rifle. “If I were to make a guess, and I’m no expert, I’d say they were decapitated. See the spatter pattern here, and then a big pool of blood here.”</p><p>Memories flashed through Patience’s mind. Of the Super Mutant king and the great sword-like weapon he carried. Of the Super Mutant that had touched her and lost its head for doing so. She’d seen, first-hand, what the King’s blade could do. She’d seen the fountain of blood.</p><p>“I think you’re probably right.” She scanned the area, using the barrel of her rifle as a pointer. “Smoke. Over there in that dumpster.”</p><p>She led the way over to the dumpster. Its once yellow construction now freshly blackened and burned. Continuing to keep her eyes moving all around, she took a swift glance inside and almost retched herself. The smell was disgusting. Cloying. Like barbecue meat gone bad. Vincent took a look himself and followed Patience’s example, almost vomiting from the smell.</p><p>“There must be pieces of two or three Super Mutants in there.” He moved away from the dumpster, desperate to catch fresher air. “Who could do that to Super Mutants?”</p><p>“Another Super Mutant. A super-Super Mutant that calls himself, itself, the ‘King’.” Patience had enough of the smell from the dumpster. She headed back towards Gia and Valrie. “I’ve seen him, it, in action. It’s a harsh disciplinarian. Whatever these did, I’m certain this was the King’s idea of making an example to others.”</p><p>“But, why? There its own soldiers.” Vincent shook his head, furrowing his brow.</p><p>Valrie and Gia were now leaning against the four-faced statue. The young ex-raider seemed to have staved off her nausea for the moment, tilting her head upwards to look at the stone face above.</p><p>“Valrie. You didn’t seem surprised about those bags. Have you seen them before?” Patience hooked a thumb over towards the gory, string bags.</p><p>“Oh, yeah. Used to them all the time, not so long back. It’s a Super Mutant thing.” She dropped her eyes, looking sheepish. “I hate to say it, but I’ve scavenged through a few in my time. Well, it’s not like the dead fuckers are going to miss their stuff.”</p><p>“‘Not so long back’, you said. So, you haven’t seen them in a while?” Patience had an idea. The end of a string of a thought.</p><p>“Nah. Not long after Three Dog started telling us the fucking Super Mutants were organising, those body parts bags seemed to just stop being around.” Valrie pulled out a pack of cigarettes, offering them around before lighting one herself. “I’ve snuck into Super Mutant camps for years, when they go out doing whatever the fuck it is they do, always seen them bags. Not lately, though. No.”</p><p>“And we’ve seen them take prisoners. Gone out of their way to keep them alive.” Patience paced around, running her hand through her hair. It was only speculation, but it seemed right. It felt right. “You said they turn people into them, Moira mentioned this Forced Evolution Virus. What if this ‘King’ is making even more Super Mutants? What if he killed those in the dumpster because they killed people, stuffing them into those gore bags, instead of taking them to the King to be made into more Super Mutants? More soldiers?”</p><p>“Maybe. I don’t know. I mean, yeah, it’s plausible.” Vincent shrugged. Valrie shrugged. Patience needed input on her idea, not disinterest.</p><p>“Gia, how many raiders have been captured by Super Mutants lately?” Patience nudged Gia’s arm and the young girl’s head snapped down from looking upwards.</p><p>“Oh, yeah. Lots. I mean lots and lots. There were about twenty-five in our gang. Super Mutants have taken about fifteen of them, killed the rest. Apart from me and Darrin.” Gia put a finger to her lips and made a dramatic ‘thinking’ expression. “Now I come to think of it, the other gangs have been getting smaller too and those in my gang that got killed were more because they were fighting to get away. Yeah. Those damned Super Mutants have been fucking busy.”</p><p>“What have I said about your fucking language?” Valrie didn’t hit Gia, this time, but the young ex-raider dipped her head and mouthed ‘sorry’ to the older woman. Valrie finished her cigarette, dropping the butt to the floor and crushing it with her boot. “So, what does this all mean?”</p><p>“War.” Patience made certain she caught all their eyes to drive home the point. Even Gia seemed to realise this was important. “This King of the Super Mutants is making an army and war is coming to the Capital Wasteland.”</p><p>“Yeah? Well, right now we have information to retrieve.” Vincent threw his hands up, urging Patience to hear him out. “I know. I know. Your hero complex means you need to do something about this possible war, but we have a mission. We’ve nearly finished. Vault-Tec HQ is right there. Let’s get this done and then we talk to the Brotherhood about the Super Mutants. Okay?”</p><p>Patience considered this. He was right. Across the square, almost hidden by the rubble and the ruined vehicles, she could see the top few letters on a building. ‘Vault’. They were only four people. Only two of them any use in combat. Help Vincent, she thought, and the Brotherhood may feel they owe her. Or, at least, the Wasteland.</p><p>But one thing continued to run through her mind. The voice of a man in a dream. The dream she had woken from to find herself dying under a dead sky in a world she didn’t recognise. The man’s words echoed in her mind.</p><p>“War. War never changes.”, “The methods may change ...”, “What if we could make a difference? Just once.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Chapter 19</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>19</p><p>Patience entered the building first, finding herself in the expansive entrance hall. The others filed in after her, taking up positions behind the long, curved front desk. The silence inside was even more eerie than the one outside.</p><p>The entrance hall comprised of one set of intact stairs at the far end and one set of broken, shifted stairs nearer to the doors. Two other sets of stairs, running downwards, had become the receptacles for large amounts of rubble and trash. Two bathrooms branched away behind the reception desk. On the wall, behind the reception desk and above the bathrooms, a life-size model of a vault door, the numbers ‘101’ stencilled in the centre, hung at a slight angle.</p><p>“Looks like this place had one hell of a fight a while ago.” Vincent picked up a handful of shell casings, sniffing one. “This wasn’t recent.”</p><p>Patience took a chance and stood up, walking behind the reception desk and finding the body of a Super Mutant, its body riddled with bullet holes. The blood on the floor dried long before. The body showed no signs of decomposition, despite the obvious amount of time since the creature had died. She poked the Super Mutant with her rifle. The skin dimpling like the creature had died only minutes, hours before.</p><p>“Jebus fucking Christ! Even fucking maggots don’t want anything to do with those fuckers.” Valerie, stood beside Patience, gave the Super Mutant body a sharp kick.</p><p>“There’s another one down here.” Gia’s hand waved from one of the blocked, downward staircases, then made an exaggerated pointing movement. “This one is seriously fu ... uh ... messed up. I mean, its face is just gone. Whoever killed this? They had anger issues.”</p><p>Patience stepped towards the staircase and looked down. The Super Mutant did, indeed, look like it had taken a full auto mag empty into its face. There didn’t seem to be anything else of use here. The screens of the computer terminals had shattered and blackened by some mind of extreme heat. The keyboards trashed and missing keys.</p><p>The broken staircase leading upwards gave them no option but to use the staircase at the far end of the reception area. Taking up a covering position at the far end of the curving reception desk, Patience sent Vincent forward to move to the second floor.</p><p>Hugging the wall, Vincent took the stairs slow, one at a time, his rifle steady and pointing up towards the landing. Reaching eye level with the floor, he eased up a slight, swinging his rifle from one side to the other. He stopped, holding his rifle pointed at one spot for a second, before continuing up the stairs and crouching at the top.</p><p>“It’s clear.” He called, waving them up. “There’s busted Robobrain robot and there’s a radio playing, but that’s it.”</p><p>Patience began moving up the stairs, followed by Gia and then Valrie. At the top of the stairs, she saw the Robobrain. It looked nothing more than a trash can on tracks, extendable, rubber covered arms ending in pincers, laid beside it and the glass dome littered the floor in fragmented pieces. On the floor, in front of the broken dome, what looked like an actual brain lay in a pool of viscous, clear liquid.</p><p>“Is that a real brain?” Patience almost felt sick at the thought.</p><p>“Oh, yeah. Some people say they used the brains of condemned criminals.” Valrie dived upon the Robobrain, extracting a screwdriver from a pocket and started opening up a panel on the cylindrical body. “Programmed the fuckers for security, maintenance, that sort of thing. Except most of them went fucking mad. Killed a lot of people.”</p><p>Patience left Valrie to her dismantling. Nothing in her Swiss Cheese memory clicked on the Robobrain. She knew nothing about them. Whether that was due to her memory loss or because the macabre machines had appeared some time after, she couldn’t tell. The idea of putting a human brain, hell, even an animal brain, into a machine sickened her. Just when she thought the Capital Wasteland couldn’t get any worse.</p><p>The rest of the landing appeared to be some kind of informal meeting area. Couches, low coffee tables and coffee machines on trestle tables, by the the back wall, were set in positions that would have given a more homely atmosphere to the corporate landscape. The radio sat beside the coffee machines, set to Galaxy News Radio, the sounds of familiar music emanating from the speakers at a low volume.</p><p>“If I’d known these comfy-ass couches were here, I’d have moved the gang in here long ago!” Gia flopped down onto one of the couches, stretching her arms along the back, resting her feet on a coffee table. “This is nice!”</p><p>“If you want to stay here, kid, you can.” Vincent opened up the top of one of the coffee machines and looked inside, shaking it. “There’s another three floors before we reach the mainframe room and we don’t know what’s waiting for us.”</p><p>“She comes with us.” Patience caught the disgruntled pour from Gia. “Or, sure, you stay here. On your own. While we, with the guns, go up. Maybe you’ll be okay if Super Mutants decide to come back, or a mad robot passes by us?”</p><p>“Fine.” Gia turned over and rubbed her face against the plush couch covering, running her hands along the surface. “I’ll miss you, incredibly comfy couch. You’ll always be my favourite.”</p><p>Patience returned to Valrie’s side to find the scavenger in a pile of circuit boards, gears, gadgets and widgets. The older woman scowled as she reached deep into the Robobrain torso.</p><p>“You know you can pick all this stuff up when we leave, right?” Patience picked up a square, fist sized thing that had a mild yellow glow to it. She turned it over. “You don’t want to carry too much if we need to run.”</p><p>“Oh, I know. All this shit was just in the way of ...” Valrie yanked at something. There was a click and her arm emerged from inside the torso, holding a smaller circuit board. “This. This fucking thing is like golduss. I put this in Wintergreen and he’ll be like new.”</p><p>“Golduss? You mean gold dust?” Patience hid a smile. She actually quite liked the way Valrie garbled words from the World That Was.</p><p>“That’s what I said. Golduss.” Valrie blew a sharp burst of air against the circuit board, smiled and slipped it into her pocket. Then she saw the square thing Patience held in her hand. “Ah! Careful with that. It’s ever so slightly, deadly fucking radioactive if not handled properly.”</p><p>With care, she took the square thing from Patience’s hand and laid it back inside the torso of the broken Robobrain, closing the panel. Brushing her hands together to get rid of the dust, Valrie stood up, a satisfied smile on her face.</p><p>Even though Patience knew Valrie’s Mr Handy robot, Wintergreen, was not the most stable of robots, Valrie had a clear affection for the thing. Patience wondered if this new circuit board would rectify the robot’s deteriorating faculties or, at the very least, stop it from being so weird.</p><p>“If we’ve all finished scavenging, laying around and pandering to each other, we should consider moving the fuck on.” Vincent pointed to a door at the side of the stairs. “We have three floors to navigate, then break into a corporate mainframe, then get the hell out of here before it gets dark.”</p><p>“Well, alright, Mr Grumpy-Pants.” Gia tore herself away from the couch. “Lead the way before you start crying.”</p><p>Vincent’s face darkened and his scowl deepened. Patience recognised that look, grabbing his arm and turning him towards the door. Vincent, Patience had found, didn’t take sarcasm well.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“You're listening to the adventures of me, Herbert "Daring" Dashwood, and my stalwart ghoul manservant, Argyle. Today's episode: The Deathclaw Tango.</p><p>“Phew! Am I glad to be out of those tunnels.”</p><p>“Me too, Argyle, me too. Ah! The sweet, fresh Capital Wasteland air. Makes you glad to be alive.”</p><p>“Let’s get one thing straight here, boss. We ain’t ever talking about that statue ever again.”</p><p>“My lips are sealed, Old Chum. No-one will ever know of your brush with godhood. I will never mention a cult of ghouls worshipping your image. In fact, I’ll tell everybody we meet that it’s a dirty lie.”</p><p>“Thanks, boss. I appreciate it. Now, where next?”</p><p>“According to the map the delightful Mrs Dérobé gave us, we should be right about there. Just behind that group of rather angry looking Deathclaws.”</p><p>“Aww, geez, boss. I think they saw us! Do ya think it’s time we used ...”</p><p>“The ... Deva-Strafer? I think so!”</p><p>“Cover your ears, boss! This is gonna be loud!”</p><p> </p><p>“Dash it all, Argyle! I thought you said you’d maintained it?”</p><p>“I thought you said you had!”</p><p>“Well, my most loyal of acquaintances, I think this might just be the end of the astounding adventures of Daring Dashwood and Argyle. It’s been an honour, old friend.”</p><p>“The pleasure’s been all yours, boss.”</p><p>“Be sure and tune in next time for another exciting adventure of me, Herbert “Daring” Dashwood and my stalwart ghoul manservant Argyle!”</p><p>-+-</p><p>They found the second floor in poor shape compared to the reception area on the first floor. Doors opened into rooms where floors had fallen in, others where the ceilings had collapsed down upon desks and work stations. Computer terminals, filing cabinets, chairs, all covered in large amounts of rubble and detritus.</p><p>More robots littered the second floor, immobile and without any signs of working. Some had bullet holes in them. Others simply dormant, as if someone had switched them off. More Robobrains, some Protectrons and military Sentry Bots. Even a couple of the military version of Mister Handys, the Mister Gutsys. And all through the floor, they found empty shell casings.</p><p>“Someone has definitely been here before us and they had a lot of ammunition.” Vincent entered another room, sweeping his rifle around.</p><p>“Maybe we’re not the only ones who need information from here?” Patience took the next room to sweep clean.</p><p>“Pretty fucking popular place, huh?” Valrie was desperate to loot everything she could from the place, Patience could tell. Every time they cleared a room, Valrie would look in and make a mental catalogue of the contents.</p><p>“Patience?” Gia tugged on Patience’s arm and made an innocent look for her benefit. “When this is all over, can we live here?”</p><p>“Why the fuck would you want to live here?” Valrie questioned, raising her eyebrows at the ex-raider.</p><p>“Well, those couches were real comfy and, I don’t know, it’s kind of nice and there’s lots of room.” Gia shrugged towards Valrie.</p><p>“I’m sure there are better places to live than here.” Patience caught the amused look from Vincent. “And besides, I don’t know what I’ll do after. I don’t even know if I’ll even make it through this.”</p><p>“Of course you’ll make it through this.” Gia gave Patience a hug. “You’re a hero. Heroes don’t die.”</p><p>Patience wasn’t too sure. She had come this far on the basis of finding out who she was, where she had come from. She was here to find answers and that was it. But those words from her fever dream continued to run around in her mind. Now that she had concluded the Super Mutants were preparing for war, she wasn’t so certain about her future.</p><p>Something in her mind compelled her. It happened back at Girdershade. It happened again at the ruins before reaching Megaton and it happened again upon finding those humans captured by the Super Mutants. Something innate clicked in her mind every time and she, somehow, knew she had to help those people.</p><p>It was almost as if she lost control of her body and something else took over. Someone else. Guiding her hand. And now she felt it again. The urge to do something about the coming war. The itch at the back if her mind, irritating her until she set off and moved against the Super Mutant threat on the horizon.</p><p>Right now, she was fine. She had the mission. The purpose. But once that mission became completed, she didn’t know if she could stop herself from heading out to meet the Super Mutant King head-on and, if the last battle between her and Super Mutants were anything to go by, it would not end well for her. She had barely survived two of the hulking creatures, let alone an army and their enhanced leader.</p><p>And the idea of settling down somewhere, with Gia as her ersatz daughter and Valrie as a stand-in grandma? She couldn’t see it. Maybe it was something Gia could imagine in her mind, still drawn out on the brain frazzling Mentats, but Patience, herself, couldn’t even begin to imagine. It did not compute.</p><p>“Well, let’s reach this mainframe, get out of the D.C. ruins alive and reach some kind of safety first, before we start talking about the future.” Patience pointed Vincent towards a set of stairs leading up to the third floor. “How many more floors?”</p><p>“My information says there’s five floors. The last floor is kind of a double height thing. Because of the mainframe.” Vincent gave Patience a strange look. “Get the info, get out. Right? Everybody’s happy.”</p><p>“Sure. Everybody’s happy.” Patience took the stairs to the first landing and allowed Vincent to leap-frog to the next.</p><p>That look disturbed Patience. Could it be possible that Vincent was still on course to follow Moriarty’s orders? As much as Three Dog seemed to think the Brotherhood of Steel were a force for good in the Wasteland, if his broadcasts were anything to go by, but they were still military and for the military, the mission came first. If Vincent’s mission was to continue in the employ of Moriarty after their foray into Vault-Tec HQ, would that include following Moriarty’s orders to kill her and Valrie?</p><p>Vincent hadn’t admitted it, but he hadn’t denied it, either. Valrie thought Moriarty had ordered their deaths and Patience, even now, trusted Valrie far more than she trusted Vincent. She trusted her own instincts, too, and her instincts, right from the very beginning, screamed at her not to trust Vincent and especially not to trust Moriarty. Even though Vincent turned out to be a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, she still found it difficult to trust him.</p><p>She shook her head. The thoughts of the, possible, future and the the current thoughts of who to trust were distracting her. If she didn’t keep a clear head, it could get them all killed and that wouldn’t help anybody, regardless of anybody’s orders. She crouch walked past Vincent and into the first room of the third floor.</p><p>“There’s a terminal her, still working. Valrie?” She slipped to the side to allow Valrie through the door, but it was Gia that skipped by, heading for the computer terminal. “Gia! No!”</p><p>“It’s okay. I told you, I’m good with computers.” Gia almost jumped into the chair behind the desk, spun it around once, then pulled herself forward towards the keyboard. It was only as Gia’s hand touched the keyboard that Patience noticed something attached to the back. A light began to blink.</p><p>“It’s booby trapped! Everybody down!” There was no way she could reach Gia in time. Patience had to make the choice, protect herself or race to Gia and get an explosion in the face. She turned her back and crouched down.</p><p>It wasn’t a huge explosion, but it was enough. The terminal exploded in a shower of sparks, glass and plastic. Pieces of the machine embedded themselves into the wall beside Patience and, unfortunately, into her back. The leather raider outfit protected some of her back, but the unprotected part, above the strapless top, caught some of the debris.</p><p>Despite the pain from the shrapnel in her back, Patience raced towards the desk. Twists of smoke drifted up from the terminal and Patience couldn’t see Gia. Grabbing the edge of the desk, she wrenched it to the side, the legs scraping upon the concrete floor and there, huddled in a ball, was Gia. Patience grabbed the girl and wrapped her arms around her.</p><p>“Who booby traps a computer?” Gia shouted, returning Patience’s embrace.</p><p>-+- </p><p>Patience sat on the desk, cleared of all debris, and left herself to the ministrations of Valrie. The older woman pulled out another piece of glass and tossed it aside, pressing on the wound with a greying piece of cloth pulled from one of her many pockets. She tutted, blowing smoke from the side of her mouth, her lips gripping the cigarette she smoked.</p><p>“You can yell out in pain any time you fucking want, you know?” She began tugging at another piece of shrapnel. “Maybe having a top that stops before your fucking shoulders wasn’t the best idea.”</p><p>“I haven’t had the chance to update my wardrobe.” She did feel the pain, every time Valrie pulled a piece from her back. The pain didn’t seem important. Not worth making a fuss over. “Soon as we pass a dress shop, I’ll get something in the latest fashion.”</p><p>“I had a leather jacket once. I swapped it for a frag grenade.” Gia sat in the office chair, dangling her legs and trying to avoid Patience’s eyes. “It was a dud.”</p><p>“What the fuck did you need a grenade for?” Valrie tapped the ash from her cigarette and returned it to her mouth.</p><p>“For protection.” Gia pouted towards Valrie.</p><p>“Fucking protection.” Valrie shook her head and pulled out the last piece of shrapnel from Patience’s back. She pressed the cloth against the wound. “Listen, these wounds need closing, but I don’t have any needle and thread. I have glue.”</p><p>“Whatever works, Valrie.” Patience caught Gia’s eyes flickering up at her then flicking away. “You have nothing to be guilty for. We all missed that booby trap.”</p><p>“I don’t feel guilty. I don’t.” Gia turned away, biting her fingernails. She faced away for a few seconds then turned back. “I didn’t mean to! I just wanted to help. I am good with computers and I thought ... I thought ... I just seem to keep doing stupid things.”</p><p>“It’s okay.” Patience leant forward to catch Gia’s eyes, but Valrie pulled her back upright with admonishing ‘tut’. “I’m okay. You’re okay. Nobody got hurt. At least, not badly. These are just scratches.”</p><p>“Some fucking scratches.” Valrie muttered under her breath.</p><p>“Gia! It’s okay.” Patience ignored Valrie’s grumpy mutterings, holding her hand out to Gia, flapping her fingers twice to tell Gia to reach out.</p><p>Reluctant, Gia bit her fingernail again then reached out for Patience’s hand. Patience squeezed the girl’s hand and gave her a warm smile. It wasn’t Gia’s fault. The ex-raider said it herself, who booby traps a computer? And why? Whoever had gone through the Vault-Tec offices before them, they were leaving nothing to chance.</p><p>The many robots showed that, whoever they were, they had skills. Tactical and technological. Patience was certain that she couldn’t have gone through these offices as efficiently, or successfully. And she knew she had skills! She still didn’t know how she knew she had those skills, but they were real and they were good. Even Vincent marvelled at those skills.</p><p>“I made a sweep of the entire floor.” Speak of the devil, Patience thought as Vincent appeared back into the room. “More robots. Some shot to hell, others just switched off. I found a first aid box. Got some plasma and a couple of StimPak’s.”</p><p>He tossed his findings onto the desk, sidled around the back of Patience and took a look at her injuries. Valrie pushed him aside, pointing up at the one strip light that he had blocked with his large frame. Throwing his hands up in mock surrender, he moved back in front of the desk.</p><p>“Any more signs of booby traps?” With a tap on the waist by Valrie, Patience slipped from the desk. “I’d rather not have any more surprises.”</p><p>“Couple of mines. Sneaky bastard hid them behind a door, but I saw them and disarmed them.” He pulled the mines from his ammo pouch and tossed those on the table. “They might come in handy later.”</p><p>Patience picked up one of the mines, turning it over in her hands. It surprised her how small it was, but she wasn’t in any doubt it could take some unexpected victim’s leg off. Even kill them. Gia reached for the other one, her hand slapped away by Valrie.</p><p>“Best you leave the fucking deadly high explosives for Patience and Vincent, kid.” Gia seemed to consider that and nodded in agreement. “Well, I’m glad of a little peace.”</p><p>“There’s more floors to go. Don’t go betting on that peace just yet.” Vincent took back the mines, returning them to his ammo pouch. “Speaking of which, I found the stairs up. Now I’ve cleared this floor, we can move fast.”</p><p>“Then let’s go.” Patience slipped the strap over her head, securing her rifle against her chest. She felt the strap rub against a couple of her injuries. That almost made her wince. “Sooner this is done, the better. We all ready?”</p><p>Vincent, his face set and ready, nodded. Valrie flicked her cigarette butt into the corner of the room, adjusting her football helmet once again. Patience almost laughed. She would tell the old scavenger to get a new helmet, but she suspected that would only lead to a batch of curse words thrown at her. Gia raised herself up from the office chair and showed an almost comical ‘stern’ face.</p><p>Satisfied everyone was ready, she lifted her rifle and headed out of the office.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Chapter 20</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>20</p><p>They reached the top floor without any further incidents, but they took their time anyway. As the booby trapped terminal and the hidden mines had shown, they could take nothing for granted. More robots, destroyed or dormant, littered the corridors and rooms. More shell casings found upon the floors. Patience didn’t like it. It seemed too easy.</p><p>The final floor held several computer terminals, each booby trapped. Someone didn’t want the terminals used. When Vincent took the time to disarm one of the booby traps, they found nothing of consequence in the memory. Some internal memos, marketing and purchase options for Vault-Tec merchandise which Gia insisted upon ordering, even though no-one alive could send out the orders. It seemed a waste of time for their predecessor to booby trap them.</p><p>On the second level of the top floor, they encountered automated turrets. They hung, useless and impotent. Switched off from some central station. Even so, Vincent reached up to each one, disconnecting their power cables, not taking the chance that they could come live once more and tear them apart with streams of bullets they would be unable to withstand.</p><p>They found one Robobrain, larger than any other in the building. A different colour scheme, a larger brain and covering dome and the word ‘Masterbrain’ stencilled on its cylindrical side. This, too, appeared dormant. A hatch at the rear, opened and hanging, showed several components missing from within the chassis.</p><p>“The main terminal room should be at the end of this corridor.” Vincent pointed a thumb behind him. “I suggest the civilians stay here. If the basic terminals had booby traps, who knows what’s been done in there.”</p><p>“Not a fucking chance, ‘Brother’ Vacant!” Valrie squared up to Vincent, almost reaching his shoulders. “Where Patience goes, I go. Don’t think you’ve earned my fucking trust, even if she’s giving you the benefit of the doubt.”</p><p>“Yeah and where Patience and Valrie goes, I goes .. I mean, I go. Bitch.” Gia, a little taller than Valrie seemed even less impressive against the big man. “And bitch isn’t cursing. Is it?”</p><p>Gia looked towards Valrie with a questioning raised eyebrow. Valrie scowled, nodding her head and Gia’s shoulders sagged, mouthing ‘sorry’ once again. They all looked at Patience, then, as if seeking her arbitration.</p><p>“We’ll play it by ear.” She avoided Vincent’s scowl and Valrie’s smug look, hefting her rifle and setting off up the corridor. “Or maybe I’ll lock you all into a cupboard until you learn to play well together.”</p><p>They passed two more automated turrets in a dog-leg section of the corridor, and a simplified, fold-out terminal that served as a control system for the powerful weapons attached to the  ceilings. Again, Vincent disconnected the power cables and checked the terminal for booby traps. He didn’t find any and Gia flicked the fold-down keyboard and checked the terminal.</p><p>“It’s just dedicated for the turrets. I don’t think it’s connected to anything else.” She flicked the keyboard back up and then back down again. “I don’t even think it can do anything else. It’s the dumbest of dumb terminals.”</p><p>“You’re certain?” Vincent, like Patience only had a rudimentary knowledge about computers.</p><p>Gia pointed to her chest, “Good. With. Computers! I’m certain.”</p><p>Reaching the end of the corridor, they found a heavy, barred gate, hanging open, leading into a square room. Empty, save for an even more heavy security door with a circular handle attached to two thick, heavy bars keeping the door closed. A green light flashed above the door.</p><p>Patience turned the handle causing the bars to retract from their seats in the metal door frame. Unlocked, she gripped the handle with both hands and nodded to Vincent. He returned the nod and she pulled the door open, allowing light to flood in from the room beyond.</p><p>Without hesitation, Vincent slipped inside as Patience prepared to follow. Valrie and Gia hugged the wall at the side, awaiting Vincents signal.</p><p>“Clear and we’ve got a problem.” Vincent sounded deflated.</p><p>Stepping into the room, Patience found herself on a walkway suspended above the first level of the top floor. Below, she could see bank upon bank of cabinets, filled with whirring tapes, flashing lights. The largest computer bank towered in the centre of the room, reaching from floor below to ceiling above, at the end of the short walkway.</p><p>Vincent stood before this computer bank, rifle slung over his shoulder, examining something before him. Patience lowered her rifle and stepped towards Vincent, trying to look past the big man’s frame and, when she reached him, he stepped aside.</p><p>The terminal, connected to the huge computer bank, was no longer of use. She saw the keyboard, smashed. The screen shattered. Cables and wires dangled from inside the casing. Whoever had reached this room before them had trashed it completely. Patience crouched and picked up a couple of letter keys from the floor.</p><p>“It’s useless.” Her head swam and she fell backwards to sit on the floor, letting the keys fall from her fingers.</p><p>“That’s not all.” Vincent offered her a hand. Reluctant, devastated, she took the hand and stood back up. He pointed over the rail towards the other computer banks. “The son of a bitch has rigged the whole damn place to blow.”</p><p>“Why?” She slammed both hands on the guard rail. “What’s on this damned computer? I mean, apart from my entire fucking history! Apart from my life! I don’t want much. All I want is to know who I am. That’s not too much to ask, is it? Is it?”</p><p>She felt an arm wrap around her shoulder and then another, from the other side, wrap around her waist. Valrie squeezed her shoulder and Gia laid her head against her arm and Patience felt like crying. She could feel the prick of a tear in the corner of her eye, but no tears came. She couldn’t even cry about it.</p><p>“I can have a look at the terminal. I’m no Moira, but I might be able to do something.” Valrie, usually so loud and coarse, spoke in soft, gentle tones. It was a nice offer, but the terminal was beyond basic repairs. Unless Valrie could build another one, she couldn’t help.</p><p>“Wait! Moira!” Now Patience’s head buzzed, like lightning flashing in the clouds. “Moira can help. And why did the other person booby trap the other terminals? Why not the turret terminal? Every other working terminal was booby trapped. Rigged to blow if anyone touched them. Why?”</p><p>“Because they’re assholes.” Gia chirped in, doing that fake angry look of hers.</p><p>“Yes! But, no.” Patience pointed at Valrie, urging her to join the dots.</p><p>“To kill whoever used it?” Valrie offered. Then Valrie’s eyes widened as she figured it out. “Parts! They wanted to stop someone using the fucking parts. But, Moira’s back in Megaton. Are we going back for her.”</p><p>“We don’t need to.” Patience lifted her left arm, showing her Pip-Boy. “How much are you willing to bet that distracted little genius has worked out that two-way radio idea?”</p><p>She switched on the Pip-Boy and flicked through the options to the ‘Radio’ section.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“Can you feel it?</p><p>Something in the air like, I don’t know, a warning? A promise?</p><p>Things are quiet out in the Capital Wasteland. And, as the cliché goes, it’s too quiet.</p><p>Old Three Dog’s been getting a steady stream of reports coming in, from all across the Wasteland, but mostly from here in the Downtown ruins. Reilly’s Rangers reports that most of the raider gangs seem to have departed for greener pastures. The Brotherhood of Steel, my buddies right here in the GNR building, tell me that something’s even got the feral ghouls spooked and anything that can spook a feral ghoul is sure to give me the willies.</p><p>Our non-feral ghoul friends in Underworld tell me that something big is happening in the Mall. Something terrible, they say. Don’t even think about heading out to Underworld anytime soon. Those doors are locked and blocked for the foreseeable future.</p><p>So, what does this all mean?</p><p> </p><p>I don’t know, Brethren. I really don’t know.</p><p>Be careful out there. Stay safe.</p><p>This is Three Dog, battening down the hatches.”</p><p>-+-</p><p>Patience rubbed the bridge of her nose. The conversation was slow, halting, prone to veer away to subjects that had little to do with the problem at hand and her arm was becoming tired. She rested her hand on the walkway rail and the signal began cracking and distorting again. After trial and error, they had found that there was a small window, within the mainframe room, where the interference from all the high-powered equipment dwindled enough to hold a conversation.</p><p>“Ooh! Almost lost you there for a second. Have you tried holding your hand above your head?” Moira, her voice a continuous, effervescent happy tone, called across the two-way connection. “Over.”</p><p>“Yeah. We tried that.” Valrie gave Patience an apologetic look and helped Patience hold her hand back up into the zone of less interference. “So, you were saying about the connections needing to be made in the right order? Um, over.”</p><p>“Yes! Oh, yes! From what you’ve described, there are safety connections, colour coded to specific levels of danger. Don’t connect the red cables until you’ve connected the green ones and then the orange ones. Red cables always last. Always!” Moira sounded as if she had walked away from her microphone and then remembered, darting back to say one last word. “Over.”</p><p>“That’s great, Moira. Thanks. Over.” Valrie looked over at the main terminal, now with the casing removed.</p><p>“Oh! And Patience,” Before Patience could turn off the two-way radio, Moira continued talking. “I’ve been looking at your blood work and there are some irregularities. I’m going to need to take another sample, though. I kinda accidentally irradiated the last one. Over.”</p><p>“Wait. You took blood from me? How? When did you take blood from me?” That woke Patience up. “Over.”</p><p>“Don’t worry! It was just a little sample and you were asleep. Anyway. Gotta go! Bye. Bye. Bye. Over.” The connection clicked off leaving Patience staring, open-mouthed, at the Pip-Boy on her forearm.</p><p>“You better check you still have all your organs.” Vincent had lost interest long before, as soon as the conversation turned technical. Now, he stood up. “Can we leave these two to fixing the terminal while we disarm the explosives?”</p><p>“Sure you can!” Gia poked her head up from looking at the innards of the main terminal, giving a thumbs up. “With Valrie’s help, I’ll get this thing working in no time.”</p><p>Valrie grabbed Gia’s arm and pulled her away from the visible wires, cables and circuit boards.</p><p>“Go. I’ve got this. Unless Mistress fucking Disaster here gets in my way.” Valrie turned away and stared at the main terminal, scratching her temple with a screwdriver.</p><p>Patience and Vincent left them to it and navigated their way back through the twists and turns of the corridors, down the short flight of stairs and through more corridors, until they reached the bottom level of the mainframe room.</p><p>Vincent stepped towards the first computer bank, slow and careful. Without touching it, he moved around several times to get a look at the explosive device attached to the cabinet. He reached up and, with great care, pushed a couple of wires aside to better see their connections. Patience, a little further back, watched him with intense concentration. Each move studied and stored within her mind.</p><p>She knew that all she needed was to see him disarm one of the devices and she would be able to copy him, almost down to exact movements. She didn’t know how she knew this, but she knew.</p><p>“There doesn’t seem to be any anti-tampering mechanism. Looks like it was done quick.” Again, he moved a wire aside and then traced it to another part of the cabinet. He looked up towards Valrie on the walkway above. “Hey! Scav! Don’t connect all the wires til we’ve cleared these devices. They’re set to go off as soon as the computer banks start doing their thing. Okay?”</p><p>Valrie didn’t even look around, only her hand, giving a thumbs up showed any sign that she heard him. Vincent shook his head and returned to the device. After another few seconds, he came to a conclusion, slowly removing first one wire from the device and then a second one. He breathed out then pulled the device from the cabinet. He tossed it to Patience, giving her a wink.</p><p>“And they’re all the same?” Patience turned the explosive over in her hands and then placed it against the wall, out of the way.</p><p>“Should be. If you see anything different, anything at all, no matter how minor, shout.” He rubbed his nose with the sleeve of his jacket. “Right. One down. You take that side.”</p><p>It took them more than a few minutes, but it became faster as Patience became used to the new skill. It amazed her how quick her mind memorised the process. In some ways, her mind appeared to be brilliant, in others, like with her memory and the technicalities of using computers, it was almost useless. Anything to do with fighting, weaponry, strategy, her mind was a wonder. Anything not of a military application was almost an afterthought. It didn’t disturb her as much as it should.</p><p>By the time they finished, they had a pile of eight explosive devices lined up against the outer wall of the mainframe room and Patience could hear heated bickering from the walkway above. Leaving the explosives, she ran back up to the second level, Vincent following close behind.</p><p>“What the hell is going on?” Patience reached the walkway to find Valrie and Gia squared up to each other, each pointing a finger at the other.</p><p>“For some unknown fucking reason, Daisy Dumbass wants to use the fold-out keyboard from the turret terminal.” Valrie turned to Patience, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “I told her it doesn’t fucking matter, but she insists.”</p><p>“Because it is cool! Patience deserves the best work.” It was almost adorable how Gia’s forehead and bridge of her nose wrinkled in anger. “And I’m not a dumbass! But I like Daisy! That’s a nice name!”</p><p>Vincent covered his mouth to hide a snigger. Gia had even shouted those last two sentences, even though she didn’t need to. Patience sighed. It was like having two children. One, an older cursing teenager and the other one just about to hit their teens and not quite understanding their own personality yet.</p><p>“Will it take much longer, or be more difficult, to use the fold-out keyboard?” Without looking, she punched Vincent’s arm as he struggled to contain his laughter. This was not the time for him to discover his sense of humour.</p><p>“Well, no. Not really.” Valrie pushed her football helmet back off her forehead.</p><p>“Then it won’t really hurt, will it?” Patience stepped aside to allow Valrie and then Gia to pass as they moved to get the keyboard.</p><p>Less than half an hour later. The keyboard attached, all the wires connected, in the right order, and they were ready to switch on the main terminal. They all held their breath as Patience switched the mainframe on and waited for the screen to flash to life.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Chapter 21</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>21</p><p>As soon as the system booted, Patience took the cable, that Moira gave them, from Valrie and attached it to her Pip-Boy and then to the relevant socket inside the terminal. Nothing happened for a few seconds and then the Pip-Boy screen began to flash in unison with the terminal screen. The same words ticker-taped onto both screens.</p><p>“Pip-Boy 3000. Vault Designation: X302. Resident Number: 1138. Accessing ...” Patience drummed her fingers on the side of the terminal as the blank, green cursor flashed in a steady rhythm. After a few seconds, the writing continued. “Data Transfer Complete. Proceed To Location Two.”</p><p>They waited for almost a minute more, watching the cursor blink on the terminal screen, before looking at each other, confused. The Pip-Boy screen returned to its normal set of options and that was all that happened. Patience tapped the ‘Return’ key several times, to no avail.</p><p>“Is that fucking it?” Valrie reached over, turning Patience’s wrist to look at her Pip-Boy. “So, this is what? Location one? The place you were supposed to go to is the place you just decided to go to to get answers. Am I the only one that thinks that’s a little too fucking convenient?”</p><p>“I don’t know. Maybe my memory is still there and when Vault-Tec HQ was mentioned, my mind connected to it?” Patience typed in several words into the keyboard with no response. “But I don’t know where location two is and I still don’t have any damned answers!”</p><p>“That’s where I come in.” Vincent stepped forward, pulling a holo-tape from one of his pouches. He held it in the air, shaking it like a penalty card in a sports game. “You’re Pip-Boy broke the lock, this will open up the door. Crack the system wide open so I can grab the info I’m here for. Once the system is open, and I have what I came for, you can dig all you want into the files.”</p><p>He placed the holo-tape into the slot on the computer bank and the entire system began to light up. All the cabinets on the level below began to whirr, a high-pitched buzz echoing around the entire area. Soon, the activity died down and the terminal screen showed the words ‘Access Granted’.</p><p>“What’s he doing?” Gia pushed her head in-between Valrie and Patience. “What are X-Vaults?”</p><p>“Four hidden vaults. Beyond top secret.” Patience read the screen as Vincent worked. “He’s copying all the locations, details about their experiments, inventories. Dear god! Weapons. Moriarty’s after weapons!”</p><p>“Yes, he is.” Vincent, concentrating upon the screen, couldn’t see the horrified look on Patience’s face. “I give a copy of this info to the Brotherhood of Steel, Moriarty calls up all his cronies to clear these vaults out and the Brotherhood takes out the biggest group of arms dealers in the Wasteland in one fell swoop.”</p><p>“And what if Moriarty is lot fucking smarter than you and the Brotherhood think he is?” Valrie, knowing Moriarty better than any of them, echoed Patience’s horrified look. “What if he gets away with this shit? How many people will die because of this information?”</p><p>“People die all the time!” Vincent turned towards Valrie, snapping at her. “This way, we get Moriarty and the Brotherhood get the most advanced weapons around. Think of what they could achieve with that. The Super Mutants? Gone. Boom.”</p><p>“At what price?” Patience itched to place her hand on her sidearm. She cast the thought aside. Not now. “How many innocents will die once these new weapons are unleashed? By you, Moriarty, the Brotherhood. It doesn’t matter who has these weapons, I guarantee innocents will die.”</p><p>“Acceptable losses for the greater good.” Vincent pointed at the screen as the terminal continued copying files to the holo-tape. “This will bring peace. The Brotherhood of Steel will finally bring peace to this ... this fucking shit-hole.”</p><p>“Peace at the end of a fucking big gun.” Valrie spat towards Vincent’s feet and turned away. “I’m going for a cigarette. Gia?”</p><p>Patience and Vincent glared at each other. There was no middle ground as far as she felt concerned. These vaults and their contents should stay hidden and forgotten, including the one she had come from. Vault X302.</p><p>They hadn’t come this close to all-out conflict since they first met. She could see Vincent’s hand move, ever so slightly, towards his .45. She maintained greater control but knew she could reach her sidearm faster than him. She could almost taste the tension. Until the terminal beside them beeped as the files completed copying. Vincent turned away, reaching for the holo-tape.</p><p>“It’s all yours. Find what you came here for.” He held up the holo-tape again. “This will benefit the whole Wasteland. If a few people get caught in the crossfire, that’s too bad. There are no innocents anymore. Innocent people got killed a long time ago.”</p><p>He returned the holo-tape to its pouch and walked away, crossing the walkway and out the door. Seconds after he left, Valrie and Gia reappeared at the door, hesitant to reenter. Patience resisted the urge to slam her fist into the terminal screen. Instead, she turned and typed in ‘Vault X302’. Straight away, a list appeared on the screen. She selected ‘Residents’ and scrolled through, looking for ‘Resident 1138’. The number her Pip-Boy had shown.</p><p>She hesitated. So many thoughts rushed through her mind. The thought of opening the file and finding someone she didn’t recognise, or, worse, didn’t like, worried her. She considered whether it was better not knowing. Whether she really needed to know anything about her past. It was, after all, long gone. She was here, now. For better or worse, the Capital Wasteland was her home. Valrie and Gia were her friends. She was Patience. Did she really need to know any more than that?</p><p>“Cold feet?” She looked over at Valrie, Gia stood slightly behind, and then looked back at the screen. The cursor waiting for her to click onto the file. “How about I read it and give you a basic summary?”</p><p>Patience didn’t answer. With her friends at her side, she had all the help she needed. She pressed ‘Return’ and watched as a list of further files appeared, a series of videos among them. She selected the first video, labeled ‘Orientation’.</p><p>“Oh, my god! You are so sexy!” Gia gasped as she looked at the first frame of the video waiting to play. “I love the hair! It’s so wavy! And is that a different colour? I know the screen’s green, but, you know. Why is your hair all, like, grey and flat now? I mean, still sexy, don’t get me wrong, but you’re not as stupid old as Valrie.”</p><p>“Gia. Shut the fuck up.” Valrie wasn’t the kind of person that initiated hugs, or affection, but she put her arm around Patience’s shoulder now. “Whatever you decide. I’m here. We’re here.”</p><p>She looked at the woman on the screen. She looked so young and happy. She sat, wearing the same jumpsuit that Patience had worn when Valrie found her. The woman didn’t have a Pip-Boy on her arm.</p><p>Patience didn’t recognise her. She couldn’t rationalise the woman on the screen as being the same woman she was. She reached out and touched the screen and felt Valrie squeeze her shoulder. On the other side, Gia pushed her way around Valrie and grasped Patience’s hand.</p><p>It was time.</p><p>-+-<br/>“Hi. My name is Sara. Sara Porter-Ramirez. I’m 24 years old and I’ve lived in D.C. for the last five years. I’m an artist. I paint using oils, mostly, but some times I like to ...”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh. Okay. Uhm ... Okay, so, it is half past nine in the morning, October 28th, 2077. We’ve been in the vault for five days, now, and it’s okay. I really like it, but we’re going to be ...”</p><p> </p><p>“Right! Sorry. I have cancer. My wife, Diana, and I were preselected to enter the vault because we both have a very rare form of cancer that is untreatable. I know, right? What are the odds? Anyway, Vault-Tec chose us to be part of a very special program. Diana and I and a whole bunch of other cancer patients are in this vault to be cured ...”</p><p> </p><p>“Okay. Not cured! They can’t guarantee that. The contract says so. Very specifically. Is that okay?”</p><p> </p><p>“Gotcha. So, anyway, this program, that is definitely not certain to cure us, involves chyro ... cryosteam ... cryostasis! That’s it! Cryostasis! Yeah. We’re going to be froz ... sorry ... Our bodies will be placed in a state of cryo-suspension.”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m getting to that. God! While in cryostasis we will also be placed in a Reality Simulation (tee-emm, copyright, blah, blah, blah), where we will live out our ‘lives’ while they work on the not-a-cure. It’ll be like, whole years can go by but only a week in the simulation, or, like, days go by in real life and years and years go by in the simulation. Apparently they can choose how time passes inside that ...”</p><p> </p><p>“Alright. Not relevant. So, in about an hour we’ll be placed in the cryostasis tubes and that will be it. New life! Oh, and before I go, Diana Ramirez-Porter, Resident number 1492, I lov ...”</p><p>-+-</p><p>The video stopped, leaving the woman on the screen, Sara, Patience, in the middle of blowing a kiss to the camera. Patience reached out to the flickering image and then pulled her hand back. Both Valrie and Gia remained silent while Patience tried to process what she had seen and heard. Then she heard a short, breathy whistle.</p><p>“Wow. That is a lot of information to take in. I mean, ‘Sara’? I would never have thought of you as a ‘Sara’. Come to think of it, I can’t see you as a ‘Patience’. I mean, you’re really not. Patient, I mean.” Gia would have continued talking if Valrie hadn’t placed a hand over the girl’s mouth.</p><p>“Are you okay?” Valrie turned Patience away from the screen and looked into her eyes. “If nothing else, the kid’s right. That is a lot to take in. How are you feeling?”</p><p>“I’m not.” She glanced at the screen, then looked back to Valrie. “I don’t feel anything. I mean, that’s me. Definitely me. Looks like me. Sounds like me. But there’s nothing of her in me. Look at her! She’s happy. She’s funny and friendly and she’s an artist! I doubt I could draw a stick-man!”</p><p>“I don’t know what to say.” Valrie leaned back against the rail. “Maybe it has something to do with your memory loss?”</p><p>“Maybe. But does memory loss explain how I know my way around weapons, guns and bullets, and fighting and war? Does she look like a soldier to you? Does she sound like someone who can look at someone and know, for a fact, several different ways she can kill them before they can even move?” She pointed towards the screen and the image of Sara, lips puckered, smiling with every part of her face.</p><p>“What’s cancer?” Patience’s head whipped around towards Gia. Angry, at first, she saw that the girl’s question was genuine. She didn’t know.</p><p>“It’s a disease.” Gia made a deliberate, long step back. “You can’t catch it! Most types can be treated, if it’s caught early enough, but some can’t be treated at all and sometimes it just gets caught too late. I ... I have cancer.”</p><p>Once more the world spun and swam around her. With a helping hand from Valrie, she slipped to the floor. She felt sick, her stomach twisting. Valrie reached into her coat and pulled out a bottle of water. It reminded Patience of when they first met. She took a couple of sips and wiped her mouth, her head beginning to clear.</p><p>She didn’t know why that revelation affected her so much. If she thought about it, it made little difference here, now. With all the radiation still hanging around, it was probable that there were few people that didn’t have cancer, here in the Capital Wasteland. She wondered how long she had left. Days? Weeks? Months? Did it matter?</p><p>“You were married, too.” Again, Patience’s head turned to look, annoyed, towards Gia. “Hey! I’m just saying! It seems like a pretty big thing that’s just vwooshed over your head. Married, is all I’m saying. And you shamelessly flirting with me all this time.”</p><p>“I’ve never flirted with you.” Patience rubbed the bridge of her nose and took another drink of water.</p><p>“Heh. Whatever, ‘Sweetie’.” Gia made a short, snorting laugh.</p><p>“There are more videos. You could probably copy everything over to your Pip-Boy and go through it somewhere better than here.” Valrie took back the bottle of water and hid it away in her coat. “And, I don’t know, this might sound out of fucking place, but, what do we call you now? ‘Sara’? ‘Patience’? Resident 1138?”</p><p>“Patience. My name is Patience.” She stood back up and returned to the terminal, scrolling through the videos. She reached one from the year 2100. “‘Sara’ died in the vault. I was born when you found me.”</p><p>She selected the video.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“Happy New Year! Okay, so it’s not New Year in here.” Sara indicated her surroundings. A nice looking suburban home, sunlight streaming in through the window. “In the ‘Reality Simulation’ it’s only been a year, or so, but out there it’s been twenty-three years and it’s the start of a new century! Twenty-three years!”</p><p>She adjusted the camera a little, then sat back into her chair.</p><p>“You know you don’t have to use the camera, right?” Another voice, off to the side of the camera, chimed in. A woman’s voice. “You could probably face the wall and the simulation will still record what you say.”</p><p>“I like using the camera. It makes it feel real. Normal.” Sara turned to the direction of the voice and stuck out her tongue before grinning and returning to the camera. She nodded towards the other voice. “That’s my better half, Diana. She’s more practical than I am. I like the ambience of using the camera. It’s more intimate.”</p><p>Sara reached down and picked up a book, showing the cover to the camera. With a picture of a stylised boy, blond haired, wearing a Vault-Tec jumpsuit, holding up his thumb and winking, the book stated in big letters ‘The Vault-Tec Big Book Of Everything’.</p><p>“So, I’ve read through this, like, a million times and I still don’t really get it.” She turned the book cover to face her and scrunched her face. “I mean, it’s weird, right? I was twenty-four when I entered the vault and I’m still twenty-four now, twenty-three years later. It’s crazy!”</p><p>“That’s because the cryo-stasis halts all your biological ageing.” The other woman leaned into the view of the camera, placing a steaming mug of coffee before Sara. She was beautiful. Dark, curly hair and the biggest smile lighting up the screen. She kissed Sara before moving away from the view of the camera. “You know this, Sweetie. It’s basic stuff!”</p><p>“Oh, hush. With your with logic and your reasoning.” She reached for the mug, trying to pick it up without using the handle. It was too hot. She made a sharp intake of breath and blew on her fingers. “So, anyway, I just wanted to wish every one a happy New Year. Meanwhile, I’m going to the Mall to paint the Washington Monument in these incredible blue skies.”</p><p>Sara reached towards the camera and the video turned to static.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Patience didn’t know what to make of her previous self. She seemed sweet, kind and caring. And fun. Patience, although she had made the occasional snide joke, would not describe herself as fun. In fact, over the past days since Valrie found her, she could count on the fingers of one hand how many times she had smiled a genuine, happy smile. Smiling, to Sara, seemed to be her natural state.</p><p>“We need to get moving soon if we’re going to get out of the city before it gets too dark.” Vincent had returned, breaking up her thoughts. “You’ve copied the files, right? Look at them later, when we’re safe.”</p><p>She turned her head, looking over her shoulder and gave him a dark look. He seemed nervous. More nervous than he had appeared when attacked by ghouls. More nervous than when they were trying to slip past the Super Mutants. That clicked in Patience’s mind as something wrong and out of place.</p><p>“Give me a second.” He seemed to be about to say something, but her intense stare made him turn and exit the room.</p><p>Returning her attention to the terminal, she scrolled through more of the videos, the years passing by in the blink of an eye. She reached one section where a significant gap between the dates appeared. Curious, she tapped ‘return’ to play the video after the gap.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Sara looked different. Instead of the giddy, excited woman from the previous videos, she appeared dishevelled. Her hair hadn’t seen a brush in some time. Her face showed none of the fun and verve of before. She looked tired. Angry. Tearful. She sat, slumped in the chair, hugging herself in a sweater too big for her. The room around her a hive of untidiness.</p><p>“The date is August 24th, 2278. At least, out there.” She raised her eyebrows, looking upwards, but moved little else. “Diana is dead.”</p><p>Sara stared at the camera for a few seconds, then looked away, dabbing at the corner of her eye with her fingers, the sweater cuff tugged down, covering the back of her wrist. She took a few seconds, staring away to the side, the occasional sniff breaking the silence. After a while, she turned back to the camera.</p><p>“One second, she was there. The next, gone. I mean, literally, gone. Right before my eyes.” She dabbed the corner of her eye again and rubbed her nose with the cuff of her sleeve. “They say ... they say there was an ... incursion. Someone, or something, from outside got in and just destroyed everything they, it, saw. For no reason! How they, it, got in, they won’t say. But she’s gone. My baby is gone!”</p><p>The video turned to static as Sara jumped from her seat, reaching for the camera, her hand covering her mouth. That wasn’t the end of the video, after a few seconds, the camera switched on again. Sara sat on the edge of her seat, an intense glare in her eyes.</p><p>“They say if you practice something for ten thousand hours, you can become an expert in anything. When we ... when we first entered the vault, we were told they could make time move differently in here.” Sara’s face tightened, her jaw jutting forward, her forehead furrowing. “So, I’m going to train. Those left out there, they’re going to speed up time, put me in a war program. For every hour out there, a year will go by in here. I’m going to train, and learn until I’m perfect. Until I can go out there and find who killed my baby. I’m going to find them and I’m going to make them pay. Make. Them. Pay!”</p><p>With a vicious snarl, Sara picked up the camera, throwing it against the wall and turning the video to static once more.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Chapter 22</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>22</p><p>They all gathered around the main terminal once more. Vincent, impatient to return back through the city ruins before dark, took the longest to convince. Reluctant, as the tallest he stood behind Valrie and Gia as Patience prepared to show them what she had found.</p><p>After watching the emotional video showing the effects of Sara’s loss of her wife, Patience had scrolled through to the last video in the sequence, dated two weeks after the last one. Two weeks in which Sara, her previous self had spent a year in the Reality Simulation for every hour passing in the real world. For Sara, this was decades later.</p><p>“I found this and I need to know what you think.” Patience’s finger hovered over the ‘Return’ key. “The last one was disturbing, but this? This is horrific.”</p><p>“Is there blood and guts? ‘Cos I’m okay with blood and guts. Just not, you know, my own.” Gia fidgeted as she tried to find a comfortable position to watch.</p><p>“For fuck’s sake, Gia! Just watch the fucking video.” Valrie glared at Gia. She kept her eye on Gia for a second, then turned to Patience. “Ready when you are.”</p><p>Patience glanced at Vincent. He shrugged his shoulders and Patience took that as a sign to continue. She pressed the key.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“Name, rank, serial number.” The grey haired man sat in the big leather chair, looking through the pages in a file.</p><p>Stood, ram-rod straight before his desk, Sara looked different. Cold, stern, more muscular. None of the fresh, fun woman remained. Her face an emotionless mask. She wore combat fatigues, dirty and tattered. Her face filthy and drawn.</p><p>“Porter-Diaz, Sara. Private, first class. Serial number, one-one-three-eight.” Her voice seemed different, too. The original Sara seemed full of life and that came through in her voice, always on the verge of laughing. This Sara was cold, mechanical.</p><p>“How long have you been a soldier, Private?” The grey haired man, still looking through the pages, reached over, without looking, and picked up a pipe from a stand. He tabbed down into the bowl with his finger, then took a match and lit it, blowing smoke from the corner of his mouth until the tobacco remained lit.</p><p>“I ... I don’t know, sir.” The little confusion at the beginning of her reply didn’t reach Sara’s face.</p><p>“And what are your current orders?” For the first time, the man looked up towards Sara.</p><p>“To seek out and destroy the enemy, by any means necessary, sir.” Sara had not moved an inch. Even the blinks of her eyes appeared timed to the precise second.</p><p>“And who is the enemy?” The grey haired man continued to hold Sara in his gaze.</p><p>“Whoever the army says, sir. The army points, I kill.” A slight tightening of the facial muscles showed the only emotion in Sara’s face.</p><p>“Good. Good. I think you’re just about ready to leave the simulation and enter the real world.” The man closed the file, dropping it on the desk. He sat back, crossing his legs, drawing on his pipe and letting the smoke escape from the corner of his mouth.</p><p>“I’m sorry. Simulation, sir? Real world?” A momentary look of confusion crossed Sara’s face and then disappeared. “Yes, sir.”</p><p>“Go to sleep, Private. When you wake up, it’ll be a brave new world for you. Dismissed.” He waved her away with the hand holding the pipe and picked up another file from his desk.</p><p>Sara snapped to attention, saluting, then turned on her heel and marched out of the room. The video ran on for a few seconds more then turned to static.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“What the fuck did we just see?” Valrie stared at the terminal screen. “That was like you, but with the ‘asshole’ dialled up to eleven.”</p><p>“I don’t like that you. She wasn’t sexy. I mean, not sexy. At all.” Gia crumpled up her face, a look of disgust upon it. “I prefer you you, not cute and pretty you, but definitely not grrr aargh soldier you. You you.”</p><p>“So, you became a soldier in this ‘Reality Simulation’ thing. What’s the problem?” Vincent scratched his armpit. It was clear he didn’t see anything wrong. “Welcome to the club.”</p><p>“The problem is this.” Patience turned back to the terminal, typing in several numbers. A list of videos appeared on the screen.</p><p>She started one video. It looked exactly like the one they had already watched, except it wasn’t Sara stood before the grey haired man, it was Diana, Sara’s wife, not dead after all. The video played out almost exactly the same. The same questions. Almost the same answers. Patience stopped the video and started the next one.</p><p>She played that for a few seconds, stopped it and played the next, then the next and the next. All the videos were almost exactly the same. Only the person stood before the desk differed. Patience clicked back to the list, tapping downwards, showing video after video after video.</p><p>“How many videos are there?” Vincent seemed interested now.</p><p>“Hundreds. Thousands, maybe.” Patience turned back to the terminal. “There are two more videos. The last ones the vault sent back to HQ, but they’re broken. Corrupted. God knows what’s on those. Maybe Moira could fix them? I don’t know.”</p><p>“Maybe. That girl is genuine fucking genius. If anyone can do it, she can.” Valrie shrugged.</p><p>“Can we get going now?” Vincent turned to leave the room once more.</p><p>“Can we get going? Did you just see what we just saw?” Patience barged past Valrie and Gia, pulling Vincent around by his arm. “You just dowloaded all those videos, all the information about the hidden vaults. If there are hundreds more like me, you can’t give that information to anybody. Not the Brotherhood and certainly not Moriarty!”</p><p>“I have a mission. A mission! I’ll follow my orders. Remember those? Because it sure looks like you used to know what that meant.” He pulled his arm away from Patience’s hand. “What does it matter to you? The Brotherhood gets hold of these people and that’s it. Can you imagine those people in Power Armour? Even Super Mutants would be dealt with, easily. I don’t see what the problem is.”</p><p>Patience’s hand thrust out, lightning fast, catching Vincent in the throat. Before his hands even began to move up to clutch at his neck, before he could even begin choking, Patience grabbed one of his wrists, twisting it and sending Vincent to his knees. In the same movement, she removed his .45 from its holster, stripped it down and dropped the pieces to the floor in front of him. By the time Vincent had started coughing, gasping for breath, Patience had taken out a knife, holding the sharp blade to Vincent’s throat.</p><p>She removed the knife, returning it to the sheath on her belt at the back. She crouched down and looked Vincent in the eyes as he struggled for breath. She helped him to sit up, his back against an upright on the railing. After a while, he started to breathe more normally, staring at Patience the whole time.</p><p>“That’s the problem. I’m the problem.” She ran her fingers through her steel grey hair and sighed. “For some reason, I have a mind of my own. I’m not that ... that drone on the video. Why? We don’t know, but if the rest of them are like they are on the videos and as good and as fast as me? We can’t let anybody have that power. I can’t let anybody have that power.”</p><p>She sat back against the railing opposite Vincent, Valrie and Gia watching in shocked silence. Vincent wasn’t convinced. She could tell. And that meant she would have to do something to stop the Brotherhood or Moriarty from getting that information. By any means necessary.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Vincent picked up the pieces of his .45 and left the room in silence, leaving Patience, Valrie and Gia staring at each other. Patience hated having to do what she did. She needed to prove a point and it became clear that talking did not have the effect she hoped for. If she was honest with herself, it didn’t seem like violence worked, either.</p><p>She leaned her head back against the railing upright, digging her fingernails into her scalp. In the back of her mind, she knew, and understood, the soldier’s perspective. That ingrained need to follow orders. Individual thinking got hammered out of a soldier before leaving bootcamp. Only when their individuality had become overwhelmed by the chain of command did the process of building it back up again begin, but only under the auspices of respecting their superiors’ authority.</p><p>Follow orders. The only time orders could be disobeyed were in those times the orders could be deemed illegal. Yet, Patience had no idea what was legal or illegal in this devastated world. She didn’t know if anything was illegal and that boiled everything down to following orders, no matter what those orders may be. Vincent was a soldier. He had orders and those orders must be followed. His moral code, if he had one anymore, was irrelevant.</p><p>“Am I the only one that thought that got a little intense?” Gia, as usual, broke the pregnant silence and, as usual, added little.</p><p>“You don’t fucking say. Was it the blistering argument or the fucking bitch-slapping he got from her that gave it away?” Valrie spoke to Gia, but continued watching Patience. “What are you going to do about it?”</p><p>“I don’t know.” Patience chewed on a fingernail, glancing at the main terminal. “Every instinct in me says I should kill him. Right here, before things get worse.”</p><p>“But?” Patting her coat’s many pockets, Valrie reached in and took out her cigarettes, lighting one and staring at Patience through the smoke she released.</p><p>“But, I can’t. I can’t kill him if I can at all help it.” She held out her hand, bending her fingers a couple of times, urging Valrie to pass the cigarette. She took it and drew in a deep draw of smoke, passing the cigarette back. “He thinks he’s doing the right thing. He’s wrong. Very wrong. But that’s what he thinks. I can’t kill him for that.”</p><p>“Which, and I’m no expert, just brings you back to what you’re going to do about it?” Gia, for once, made sense. It was a circular reasoning. “And, for the record, I’m okay with the killing thing. I like him, but I don’t think he’s going do what you want.”</p><p>“Neither do I.” With a sigh, Patience dragged herself back to her feet. Putting her hands on her hips, she turned back to the main terminal. “You two go make sure he hasn’t disappeared. I’m going to finish copying all my files onto my Pip-Boy. And Diana’s.”</p><p>Gia seemed to be about to protest having to leave, but Valrie grabbed the girl’s arm and pulled her out of the room, leaving Patience with her thoughts. She reconnected her Pip-Boy and began the transfer of all her files. The documents, the videos, the reports, everything. She did the same for Sara’s wife, Diana. Patience felt no connection to the woman, but it was possible, some time in the future, that her memory could return and Sara would want those files. The woman Patience used to be would need to know the Vault-Tec people had lied to her. Her wife had not died. She paused and then began transferring all the files about the secret vaults.</p><p>Once the copying completed, she reached into one of her ammo pouches, pulling out one of the slabs of explosive she and Vincent had disarmed. Attaching it to the main terminal’s cabinet, she backed out of the room, taking out her sidearm. Half-closing the door, she took careful aim, fired and closed the door, ducking to the side.</p><p>The explosion buckled the reinforced door. She didn’t try to open it and check her work. It didn’t look like the door would be opening any time soon. Instead, she holstered her sidearm and set off back through the snaking corridors. Not finding Valrie, Gia and Vincent anywhere, she retraced her steps through the building, moving faster and faster as she passed each floor without any sign of the others.</p><p>Finally, she burst through the doors to the outside and there she found her three companions.</p><p>Vincent held Valrie and Gia at gunpoint, around twenty feet apart.</p><p>“It didn’t have to come to this, Patience. If you’d just toed the line, I was going to tell Moriarty I killed you and we’d all be happy.” He held the gun steady, keeping Valrie and Gia at his periphery while he focussed on Patience. “We still can. All you have to do, is let me go. Let me take the information to the Brotherhood and then Moriarty. You go find your answers, I do my job. But you won’t, will you?”</p><p>“Nope.” Patience held her hands up in a non-aggressive stance. “That information is dangerous. Those people, people like me, are dangerous. I can’t let those people loose in an already shitty mess of a world.”</p><p>“If it’s already shitty and a mess, what difference does it make?” Patience could see the sweat beading on Vincent’s temple. “Come on, Patience! Why are you making this so hard? Why can’t you just let it go?”</p><p>“Because I have hope.” She could see it now, the desperation in his voice, the wavering of the .45 pointed towards Valrie and Gia. The battle between orders and what his own thoughts told him. “I have to. I have to hope this world can be better. I have to hope that this, this is as bad as it can get. Why make it worse, Vincent? Share my hope.”</p><p>“God damn it, Patience. I like you, I really do. I like all of you.” He cycled a round into the chamber. If Patience had known, she would have shot him already. “But I can’t disobey orders. I ... I just can’t. I’m sorry.”</p><p>“Just shoot the fucking asshole, Patience!” Valrie stepped in front of Gia, pushing the younger girl behind her. “He can only get one of us before you kill him and I’m okay with it being me. Seems a fair fucking trade.”</p><p>“Will you, please, for the love of fucking god, shut the fuck up, Valrie!” Vincent’s eyes flickered towards Valrie.</p><p>And that gave Patience all the opening she needed. Everything seemed to turn into slow motion. Even from here, she could see Vincent’s finger release the tiniest amount of pressure from the trigger of his .45. Like swimming through syrup, her hand moved downwards, instinct and practice, decades worth of practice she knew now, dropping to the grip of her sidearm.</p><p>Unlike Vincent, she always kept a round chambered. All Patience had to do was turn off the safety as she raised her weapon that had no hammer to pull back. Still moving in slow motion, or so it seemed to her, Vincent had seen her hand moving. Now it was a race to see who could bring their weapon to bear first.</p><p>Vincent’s weapon swung across. Patience’s weapon swung upwards. It was going to be close and Patience couldn’t be certain who would catch the other in their sights first. Only inches remained. Patience began squeezing her trigger.</p><p>It was in the corner of her eye that she saw it incoming, faster than she could move. Faster than her hands or body could react. The smoke trail landed almost directly between them all and the explosion rippled outwards, sending everyone sprawling, flying. She felt herself thrown backwards, crashing through the doors of Vault-Tec HQ, landing on her back. The last thing she heard as the ringing in her ears threatened to overwhelm her and the sweet dark embrace of unconsciousness took her were two words.</p><p>“Stupid humans.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Chapter 23</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>23</p><p>“You're listening to the adventures of me, Herbert "Daring" Dashwood, and my stalwart ghoul manservant, Argyle. Today's episode: Defeat At The Hands.</p><p>“We’re doomed, Argyle. Doomed!”</p><p>“Wait! Can you hear music? “Hail to the Chief”. And are those ...?”</p><p>“Vertibirds! And they’re dropping cages onto the Deathclaws. We’re saved!”</p><p>“I haven’t seen a Vertibird since that unfortunate incident back in the Summer of ‘63.”</p><p>“Ah, good times, Argyle. Good times.”</p><p>“Why would anybody cage Deathclaws though, boss? Who’d be crazy enough to mess with those things.”</p><p>“That would be me, your president, John Henry Eden.”</p><p>“Boss! It’s an Eyebot ... and it’s talking to us!”</p><p>“I never knew the president of the Enclave was an Eyebot. That is a rather surprising development.”</p><p>“The Eyebot isn’t your president. I’m talking to you through the Eyebot and I’d just like to thank you boys for baiting the trap for those creatures. You’ve done your president, and our great nation, a service that can’t be repaid.”</p><p>“Money would be payment enough. Right, boss?”</p><p>“Now, don’t go telling anybody about these Deathclaws, boys. It’s all very hush hush and I, your president, would hate to have you killed for treason.”</p><p>“You can count on us, Mister President. Argyle and I know how to keep our mouths firmly closed.”</p><p>“Especially if opening ‘em gets us killed.”</p><p>“Well, so long, boys. Don’t forget to vote in the next election.”</p><p>“Sure. When is that?”</p><p>“He’s gone, Argyle and look, over there. Someone is waving at us. Right in the building we’ve been searching for.”</p><p>“Then let’s go meet the mysterious Doctor Dérobé!”</p><p>“Be sure and tune in next time for another exciting adventure of me, Herbert “Daring” Dashwood and my stalwart ghoul manservant Argyle!”</p><p>-+-</p><p>Patience pushed the remains of the door off to the side. She couldn’t hear the crash that it made. In fact, she couldn’t hear anything. She reached up to her ears and her hands came away with blood on the fingertips. Making a quick check of her body, she found several cuts and pieces of shrapnel embedded in her legs and chest. She pulled the shrapnel pieces out, glad that she couldn’t hear her own screams of pain.</p><p>With difficulty, she pushed herself upright, wobbling for a second. She reached out towards the nearest wall to steady herself, almost missing it. Misjudging the distance. Her eyes out of focus. She felt a coughing fit begin to erupt and watched, as if separate from her own body as she coughed a splatter of blood onto the floor. Internal injuries, she surmised.</p><p>Hobbling outside, she began to call for Valrie and Gia, finding it strange, unable to hear her own voice. To the right, a fresh mound of rubble had fallen from the face of the next building. To the left, a small, smoking crater was all that remained to show where the missile hit. She had been lucky, the missile appeared to have had less explosives in than she would expect, or less powerful explosives. Either could be the case in this world of scarce resources.</p><p>She opened her jaw wide a couple of times, attempting to clear her ears, looking around for any sign of her friends. Then she saw it. A pool of blood and Valrie’s football helmet in the centre of it. She dropped to her knees, reaching out, ignoring the pain, and grabbed the helmet. Valrie and Gia were nowhere in sight.</p><p>She could feel tears begin to prick the corner of her eyes, but the tears would not come. Even now, her body wouldn’t allow her to cry. Holding back her sadness, tamping it down, deep inside, out of the way. Crying would not bring Valrie and Gia back. Back from the dead or back from wherever the Super Mutants had taken them, Patience didn’t know.</p><p>Turning her head around, she stared at the fresh mound of rubble and, for the first time, saw the sole of a boot sticking out from beneath it. It was possible she could dig out Vincent’s body and find those Stimpaks he had found. At least then she would have the energy to stand up and search for her friends.</p><p>Stumbling over to the rubble, she stopped as she saw it moving. The slab, under which Vincent lay, had fallen at an angle, landing on another piece of rubble, leaving a slight gap underneath. Vincent could still be alive. Looking around, she saw her sidearm on the ground, a few feet away. Picking it up, she gave it a quick check. A couple of minor dents on the barrel, but nothing major.</p><p>Edging around the rubble, she found Vincent laid on his back, staring into the sky. At first, she thought he was dead, until he jerked and coughed, silent to her damaged ears. He didn’t seem able to move, however, but she held her sidearm trained on him as she rummaged through his pouches and pockets.</p><p>The Stimpaks weren’t the only things she found. The holo-tape, containing all the information regarding the secret vaults, the new weaponry, her fellow soldiers from her vault. All of it, right there on the little black box of tape. She turned it over in her hands a couple of times, considering all the damage such information could cause. She needed to destroy it, but not quite yet.</p><p>She dug the needle of one of the Stimpaks into her leg and pressed the plunger, sending whatever cocktail of drugs, stimulants and painkillers it contained rushing into her bloodstream. The effect was almost instantaneous. The pain disappeared straight away, smothered by the painkillers or healed, she didn’t know. Soon after, her hearing began to return, a sharp ringing sound the first thing she heard and then that diminished and she could hear once again. She touched her injuries. The bleeding had stopped. Whatever was in those Stimpaks, it worked miracles!</p><p>Now, she considered Vincent. She could hear him coughing. She could see his body twitching. It would be so easy for her to walk away. To let him die. His eyes rolled around and fixed upon her, the pupils dilated, his face drained. He tried to talk.</p><p>“P ... Patience?” He coughed again, spitting blood onto his chin. She could hear his ragged breathing. “I’m sorry.”</p><p>The contrition of a dying man. Not one, final attempt to justify his actions. Not even trying to say anything about orders. Only a simple apology. She could let him die. Anyone else in the Wasteland would. Let him die and steal his belongings. Valrie would let him die. Especially after turning on them before the missile hit.</p><p>But she wasn’t Valrie. She wasn’t anyone else.</p><p>The Stimpak needle penetrated Vincent’s arm and she pressed the plunger, shooting him up with the same wonder cocktail that now had her feeling almost at one hundred percent. Vincent arched his back, letting out a strangled gasp as life reentered his body. His hands grasped and clutched at the ground and he raised his head, staring around. His eyes wide and questioning.</p><p>“We have to talk.” Patience held the holo-tape between her fingers, out of reach of Vincent, his leg still trapped beneath the rubble. “Tell me, if this hadn’t existed, all this information, would you have tried to kill me.”</p><p>“No.” His eyes never left the holo-tape. He was telling the truth, Patience could tell. “I told you, I’d have told the Brotherhood and Moriarty that I’d killed you, but I’d have let you go. That’s still an option, here. Give me the tape. We’ll call it square and go our separate ways.”</p><p>“What if this tape didn’t exist now?” Patience took the holo-tape between both hands and snapped it in two, taking the tape inside and unspooling it, tearing it into pieces. Vincent threw his head back and slapped the ground.</p><p>“God damn it, Patience! Damn you!” Vincent pursed his lips, breathing through his nose. “And the original files?”</p><p>“Blew them to shit too.” She caught Vincent looking at her Pip-Boy and she tapped her finger on the screen. “Nope. Not on there, either. I got the files I needed, for me, not you. There’s no locations for any of the vaults in here.”</p><p>“So, that’s it? All the good we could have done with the things in those vaults. Gone.” He slumped onto his back, rubbing his hands on his face. “God damn.”</p><p>“You could still do some good. Some thing really worthwhile. Not the bullshit the Brotherhood fed you, or that Moriarty promised you. Something truly good.” He raised his head, frowning at her. “Valrie and Gia are gone. I think ... I hope they’re alive, but I think the Super Mutants have got them. What do you say? Be a hero with me.”</p><p>He didn’t answer. At first he couldn’t stop staring at the destroyed holo-tape. Patience could see the thoughts running through his head. He appeared to be in two minds, fighting against his training and his morals. Clenching his fists, he turned his eyes back to Patience and reached out his hand.</p><p>“Alright. Let’s get our girls back.” He grasped Patience’s hand as she offered it and gave it a vigorous shake. “And fuck any Super Mutants that get in our way.”</p><p>-+-</p><p>Returning back through the ruins turned out to be easier than going through the first time. No Super Mutants patrolling. The Metro station where they left the drugged up, copulating raiders now appeared empty. The filthy mattress Bradley and Lyla had occupied lay barren.</p><p>They soon found their way back to the GNR building. Vincent had convinced her it had to be the best option. The boy from the Metro station, Bradley, had mentioned the Mall. The long open space in the city where the Super Mutants had been taking their captives. There was no way that Patience and Vincent could enter the area unseen. Nor could they go in, guns blazing. They needed help.</p><p>They needed the Brotherhood of Steel.</p><p>“Absolutely not, Brother Vincent!” Knight Captain Hazel had other ideas. “You will report back to your assignment and this ... civilian can be on her way. People die all the time. We are not a search and rescue operation.”</p><p>“Knight Captain, hear me out. We just need a couple of Brothers. All they have to do is cause a diversion and retreat.” Vincent surprised Patience. An hour ago he would have accepted the Knight Captain’s denial without rebuttal. “We’ll be the ones taking the risks.”</p><p>“Soldier, did I fucking stutter?” The Knight Captain only came up to Vincent’s chin, but still seemed to loom over him. “We cannot waste the limited resources we have. Neither in supplies, nor in personnel. Yourself included. Report to your assignment! Dismissed!”</p><p>Vincent glared at the Knight Captain, then stiffened up, stood to attention and saluted. Turning on his heel, he strode back to Patience, waiting outside the door. She pulled her arm away as he grabbed her, trying to pull her away from the doorway.</p><p>“That’s it? You’re giving up?” Patience pushed Vincent away. “Well, you ungrateful bastard, if you won’t help, I’ll go in alone.”</p><p>“No. I’m not giving up.” Vincent hissed, his eyes roving side to side, making sure no-one could hear them. “But Hazel is one stubborn fucker. If she says ‘no’, she means it. Doesn’t mean I’m going back to Moriarty.”</p><p>“So, if they’re not going to help, how the hell do we get through hordes of Super Mutants?” She allowed Vincent to pull her along, now, out of sight and earshot of anyone else. “I can’t let Valrie and Gia die without at least trying to save them. I can’t!”</p><p>“You remember that set of power armour you found? In that basement?” She nodded, furrowing her brow. “If I’m right, the only reason she couldn’t get out of there was because her fusion core ran out. I may be wrong, but if I’m right, I’ll be the distraction you need.”</p><p>“Alone? That would be suicide.” Patience found herself concerned for the man she considered allowing to die, not that long ago. “I couldn’t ask that of you.”</p><p>“You’re not asking. I’m telling.” Vincent smiled, then. The first true, genuine smile she’d seen from him. “I thought joining the Brotherhood of Steel would make me a better man. It didn’t. But this? If I can help get our girls back, if I can do one good thing, maybe ... maybe that will make me a better man. Let’s face it, I can’t be much worse.”</p><p>Patience considered arguing with him, but something in the back of her mind stopped her. The soldier in her, that manufactured, soul-less thing that Sara became, manipulated and brainwashed, told her to accept it. Acceptable losses. But Patience wasn’t that Soldier. She wasn’t that version of Sara, or the other one, the sweet one. She was Patience and, to Patience, there were no such things as acceptable losses.</p><p>“Alright. You go get what you need.” She grabbed his forearm and squeezed, forcing a smile. “While you do that, I have something to do, myself.”</p><p>Vincent nodded and headed away down the corridor. Patience watched him go and then lifted her arm to look at her Pip-Boy. She hadn’t had time to tell Valrie and Gia, before Vincent’s betrayal and the missile. She had chosen not to tell Vincent after pulling him out of the rubble, and now she didn’t think she would tell him.</p><p>She switched on the Pip-Boy, flicked through to the map and watched the flashing green dot and the words ‘Second Location’ blinking at the same time. The dot flashed right in the centre of the Mall. After everything she had learned, from Moira and from the files and videos on the Vault-Tec mainframe, she finally thought she knew what she was.</p><p>She was a weapon. A weapon aimed towards the Super Mutants and their ‘King’. “The methods may change.” The words from the dream haunted her waking mind. She wasn’t a gun, or a bomb. She was that different method. She didn’t think she would survive this, but knowing that she could stop the Super Mutants? That made it okay.</p><p>She switched off the Pip-Boy, resolving herself to what she needed to do, then turned and headed towards the stairs to the second level. Even though she had accepted her fate, it didn’t mean that she had to accept Vincent sacrificing himself. Not alone, at least. Of course, that depended on whether her ‘hero’ status held any privileges. That remained to be seen.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“Run that shit by me again.” Three Dog removed his sunglasses, leaning forward and frowning as he swung the glasses by the arm.</p><p>Patience knew it was a long shot. It was, for all practical purposes, the biggest of Hail Mary’s, but she had to try something. Anything. She couldn’t do it alone. She couldn’t allow Vincent to sacrifice himself, regardless of the things he had done, and she couldn’t allow Valrie and Gia, if they were still alive, to stay in the hands of the Super Mutants.</p><p>She ran through the plan again and Three Dog paid close attention to every word she said. He didn’t interrupt at any point. He listened, screwed up his face at several points almost as if she had physically hurt him with her words, and gave her the time to finish what she was saying. When she finished, again, he sat back, lifting a leg onto the opposite knee and chewed on the arm of his sunglasses, lost in thought.</p><p>“So, what do you say? I know, I know, it’s unlikely, but it’s worth a shot, right?” She watched him, eyes wide, urging him to say yes. “Right?”</p><p>“It’s the dumbest idea I’ve heard in a long time.” He reached over to the table beside them, picking up a mug of the beverage that tasted like machine oil. “I mean, not only is it unlikely that anyone, no matter how much you’ve helped out the Wasteland, will come to waste precious ammunition, but you going in there to die? That’s beyond stupid. That’s stupid on a historical scale.”</p><p>“You’re not going to do it.” Patience nodded to herself and started running scenarios through her head, trying to find one where, at the very least, Valrie and Gia survived. She began to stand. “Thanks anyway.”</p><p>“Hey, hey! Hold up.” Three Dog reached over and pulled her back to the chair. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t do it. I just needed to be clear that it’s not likely to work. I mean, really, really unlikely.”</p><p>“You’ll do it?” She felt a rush of relief run through her body. If only one extra person turned up, it would be a help.</p><p>“I can’t go around building you up to be a hero, the Beautiful Stranger, here to save the Capital Wasteland, without urging people to be inspired by you. That’s what a hero really is, the inspiration to be better.” He paused and looked into her eyes, his face softening. “Does the hero really need to die in this scenario? What does Vincent think about that?”</p><p>“I haven’t told him.” Three Dog raised an eyebrow at that and Patience looked away. She didn’t know if Sweet-Sara ever became self-conscious and she felt certain Soldier-Sara didn’t. She only now realised that she, Patience, did. “It isn’t really a choice.”</p><p>“There’s always a choice.” He frowned again. “Choice is the only true freedom anyone really has.”</p><p>“Not me.” She lifted up the arm with the Pip-Boy and tried to open a gap between the device and her skin, showing the tubes and wires. “I’m a weapon. Created to be a soldier. This thing? I don’t know if it’s a bomb, some kind of healing thing, or what. I was aimed and fired towards this confrontation. War never changes, only the methods.”</p><p>“You could walk away. That’s a choice.” One look into his eyes and she knew he didn’t have a shred of belief that she would do that. She shook her head. “No. I didn’t think so. It’s not in your nature. I’ll do it. If you make me a promise? Promise me you’ll try, at the very least try, not to die?”</p><p>“If trying will help, I’ll try.” She stood up and placed her hand on Three Dog’s shoulder. He crossed his hand over, patting hers. He didn’t smile, though.</p><p>“Patience?” Vincent barged through the door, looking sheepish. He made a lazy salute to Three Dog. “We’re going to have to make a quick exit.”</p><p>Patience squeezed Three Dog’s shoulder then, reluctant, slipped her hand from under his, moving toward the door and Vincent. She didn’t look back. She didn’t want to see any sadness in Three Dog’s eyes. She didn’t want to say goodbye and mean it. Leaving it this way might give the DJ hope that she would return, even if that hope was empty.</p><p>“What’s the situation?” She grabbed Vincent’s arm and pulled him along the corridor, checking each doorway as they moved. Vincent had a new, bulging backpack.</p><p>“The situation is that I’ve borrowed a shit-ton of stuff and the Quartermaster is just about to go back to the armoury after her break.” They passed a couple of Knights who gave them both sidelong glances. As they left earshot, Vincent continued. “When she notices stuff missing, and she will, she’s going to go ape-shit, at which point everyone in this place is going to be after our heads. So, I, kind of, set a distraction.”</p><p>“A distraction?” Patience didn’t like the sound of this. It was not going to help her plans. She checked her faithful Chinese rifle and her sidearm as they moved through the building, descending the stairs to the first floor and the exit to the city.</p><p>“A bomb? Well, not a bomb, really. More like a big noise and a lot of smoke.” Since the showdown between them, the subsequent missile attack and coming to their agreement, Vincent had started showing his emotional side. He cringed, apologetic. “If I’ve set it right, it’ll seem like an accident, but it’ll get us out of here with minimal ...”</p><p>As they reached the entrance area of the GNR building, a loud thud occurred several doors away, shaking dust from the walls, and was soon followed by a billowing cloud careening down the corridor towards them and then expanding out to fill the entrance area with thick, roiling smoke.</p><p>Brotherhood troops began to run this way and that, picking up weapons and running towards the origin of the explosion. Some running up the stairs, others taking positions facing the doors. As the smoke thickened even more, Patience and Vincent took advantage of the chaos, waiting for the right moment to slip outside.</p><p>This was it. They were on their way. First to pick up the power armour for Vincent, then on to find her friends. Live or die, this was the time. This was the moment she’d been running towards ever since Valrie had dragged her out of the sun, saving her life. This was the time to be the hero in her own story and the villain in the story for the Super Mutants and their ‘King’.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Chapter 24</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>24</p><p>Patience stared down into the basement, shining her Pip-Boy’s flashlight into the darkness as Vincent worked upon the power armour. He had already sent up the mini-gun and ammunition, via the pulley and harness stolen from the Brotherhood of Steel. Before that he had taken the dog tags from the dead Knight and covered her with a scrap of material found in the dark.</p><p>“Are you sure we can get that out of there?” She called as he attached ropes onto the hook points on the shoulders of the armour. “It looks pretty heavy.”</p><p>“Sure. This rope and that pulley were designed for these things. I’m more worried the building structure won’t take the weight.” He pointed up at the pulley attached to a section of floor above her head. “If not, we’re going to have to just go without it.”</p><p>Patience frowned as he continued working. They had already wasted too much time trying to get the Brotherhood of Steel involved and now even more time slipped past. The fact was that between them, as they were, they wouldn’t stand a chance against the Super Mutants, especially the numbers they would be meeting when they reached the Mall.</p><p>Yet, every second they took away from the Mall was one second too many that Valrie and Gia were in the hands of those monsters. She glanced at the Pip-Boy screen where the words ‘Proceed to Location Two’ continued to flash on the map. She wasn’t sure what would happen upon reaching Location Two. All that she knew was that her friends were there and so was the Super Mutant ‘King’. Whether her friends were still alive was a different story.</p><p>She heard a distinct rising hum from below and saw Vincent securing something in the rear of the power armour, a glowing tube of some kind. The fusion core Vincent had mentioned. He looked up at Patience, taking a deep breath, then stepped into the back of the power armour. At first nothing happened, but then whirring noises began, pieces of the armour began ratcheting in on themselves, closing together and capturing Vincent inside.</p><p>“Systems are ... good. Everything appears to be functioning.” Vincents voice came out of the power armour’s speakers, distorted and metallic. “Step back. I’m going to start pulling myself up.”</p><p>Powerful motors began to hum as Vincent’s armoured hands grabbed the rope. It was going to be awkward, pulling himself up, but he assured her he could do it. He began by taking one long pull on the rope, lifting the power armour forwards instead of up, it’s large feet dragging upon the basement floor. When he was directly beneath the pulley, he began pulling in earnest.</p><p>It was slow work, at first and the rope slipped in the metallic grip more than once, but soon, Vincent started getting the hang of it, pulling with one hand, securing with the other, pulling again. When the power armour’s head crested the edge of the hole, Patience heard a strained creaking. Looking up, she saw the pulley’s bolts loosening in the floor above.</p><p>“The pulley’s coming loose! Just a few more feet!” She shouted even though she felt certain the power armour had microphones for the person inside to hear things.</p><p>“Stand back! With the weight on this rope, if it gives way, it’ll cut you in half!” Vincent reached up, grabbing the rope once more as Patience backed away a few feet, fighting against the urge to grab the rope and help to pull him up.</p><p>The power armour had now lifted slightly above the edge of the hole. All Vincent had to do was place the armour’s feet onto the floor of this level. One foot moved forward and that was when the pulley’s bolts gave way. The rope whipped through the air pinging off the metal armour, leaving a long scratch on the surface. The pulley fell into the hole and the power armour disappeared from sight.</p><p>Through the cloud of dust dropped from the broken ceiling, Patience ran to the side of the hole. There, at the edge, fingers dug into the surface of the floor, was the hand of the power armour. The rest dangled into the darkness of the basement. Vincent threw the other hand upwards, slapping the floor with a clang and then a crunch as he dug the suit’s fingers deep into the concrete.</p><p>There was a pause as Patience heard heavy breathing emerge from the power armour’s tinny speakers. She had no idea using the power armour caused so much exertion. There was nothing she could do to help and this infuriated her. She wanted to grab one of the hands and pull Vincent up, but she knew the weight was far beyond her.</p><p>“Are you okay? Is that it? Do you just drop, or what?” She could feel herself stepping forward and back again, looking around for something, anything, to help.</p><p>“I’m okay. Just ... just give me a second.” Vincent’s voice sounded strained. Patience wondered what the point of the armour was if it strained the wearers so much.</p><p>A few seconds passed and Vincent’s breathing started to come slower and deeper. Soon, he lifted one hand from its purchase on the floor, stretched it forward and slammed it down into the concrete again, pulling himself a few inches forward. A second later he did the same with the other hand and then again with the first.</p><p>Long agonising seconds passed as Vincent continued to make progress until the entire body of the power armour now lay upon the concrete floor. He stayed there for a short while, spread eagled, face down, unmoving, and then with the sound of motors, pistons and gears, Vincent pushed up from the floor and gained his feet.</p><p>He towered over Patience at the best of times, but now, in the power armour adding several more inches to his height, he positively loomed over her. Patience wondered to herself whether it would be a fair fight now that he had the advantage of the armour and laughed to herself, snorting at the ridiculousness of thinking such a thing at this time. That, she thought, was the Vault’s programming in action.</p><p>“What’s so funny?” The head of the power armour turned, almost independent of the rest of the suit, and looked down at Patience.</p><p>“Oh, nothing. Just releasing some of the stress of the situation.” She covered her mouth as she continued trying to suppress her sniggering.</p><p>“Well, when you’re ready, we’ve got some Super Mutant asses to kick.” Vincent manoeuvred the power armour over to where the mini-gun lay, picking it up. The walking tank moved in a surprising, graceful way.</p><p>“You’re right.” Patience picked up her rifle, slipping the strap over her head and securing it across her chest. “It’s time we showed those Super Mutants what pain is.”</p><p>With Vincent stomping behind her, Patience left the building and headed towards the entrance to the nearest Metro station. It would be a short trip underground before they would get to the Mall, but Vincent had got intel from his fellow Brotherhood Knights that those tunnels were clear.</p><p>Soon, she would find Valrie and Gia and liberate them from their captors. Alive or dead, Patience would not allow them to remain alone for much longer.</p><p>-+-</p><p>“This one’s going out to all you folks who still want to fight the Good Fight. To those people who hope for a better future. That pray to your God, or gods, or even those that don’t pray, for a better life. A safer life. This is the time, brothers and sisters. This is the time.</p><p>That vault dweller, our Beautiful Stranger, is putting her life on the line, tonight, for you.</p><p>She’s heading out for one last shot at the menace that has flooded the rubble strewn streets of the Downtown ruins. You know what I mean. You know who I mean.</p><p>I’m talking to you, who’ve lost loved ones to these monsters. I’m talking to you, who’ve found yourselves forced out of your homes. I’m talking to, who have simply had enough.</p><p>Now, our Avenging Angel does not want you to put your lives at risk. She doesn’t want anybody else to die. She only wants your noise. She wants you to be loud. She wants you to be proud Capital Wastelanders, fighting for your home with your voices and whatever else you can use, even your precious ammo and explosives.</p><p>Simply go to the Mall. When the time is right, you’ll know. When the noise needs to start, you’ll all see the signal. But when those Super Mutant bastards come for you, you run. You don’t fight.</p><p>That’s her job. The Beautiful Stranger will do your fighting for you.</p><p>So, here’s to you, proud Wastelanders. I’m calling you out, Raiders. This is your home too. Reilly’s Rangers, you better be there. The ghouls of Underworld, she’s doing this for everyone, you included. Talon Company? You bet your ass you better man up. And the Bee-Oh-Ess? Brotherhood of Steel? She’s doing what you should have already done. Get your power armoured butts down there and back her up!</p><p>A hero is walking out there to die tonight. For all of you!</p><p>Don’t let her die alone.</p><p>This is Three Dog, heading out to make some noise.”</p><p>-+-</p><p>Meanwhile ...</p><p>Valrie opened her eyes and it hurt. In fact, everything fucking hurt. Even her hair. Alright, maybe that last bit was an exaggeration, but it felt like it. Her arms, tied behind her back, felt like they’d swollen to twice their size. Her legs, folded under her, felt numb. The side of her head felt like it had stuck in place, like she’d plastered make-up on with a trowel and a quick rub against her shoulder showed her why as flakes of dried blood stuck to her coat.</p><p>Through unfocussed eyes, she tried to work out where she was. It wasn’t the Vault-Tec HQ, that was for certain. There were no buildings in sight, only the steep sides of what appeared to be trenches, dug into yellowing mud. A few foot boards laid, haphazard, upon the ground and she saw strings of lights adorning the sides of the trench.</p><p>It was night. The hazy nature of the sky causing the stars to warp and twinkle in that strange, beautiful way she loved to see out in the Wasteland. Here, it only stood to remind her she wasn’t home anymore. Following a young woman with a saviour complex through the streets of Downtown D.C.. A decision that she thoroughly regretted right now, but would regret regretting later once she saw that stern, earnest face of Patience once again.</p><p>She looked to both sides. On the one side was some kid that she didn’t recognise. Probably some doped up raider caught with their pants down. To the other, she saw Gia and her heart skipped a beat. The girl didn’t appear to move, cuts and bruises all over her body. Valrie watched her for a few seconds until she felt certain she could see the kid breathing. At least she seemed alive, if a little battered.</p><p>Beyond Gia, Valrie could see a row of people stretching off along the side of the trench, all tied with their hands behind their backs. All looking terrified and damaged in some way. And there, stomping down the trench towards her, came a Super Mutant. Carrying an assault rifle in its huge hands, the trigger guard snapped off to allow those thick fingers to fire the weapon.</p><p>Under normal circumstances, she would have said something. Called the big, vomit yellow monster a fucker and demanded to know what was happening. For once in her life, she decided to keep her mouth shut and suppressing that urge to run her mouth off felt like a knife in the gut. Words were her weapons, but her words wouldn’t help against these creatures. You can’t embarrass something that stupid. Even though she was desperate to try. The only thing it would cause would be a back-handed slap by hands the size of most people’s bodies.</p><p>“I didn’t bite it!” Gia jumped to her knees, almost wide awake as soon as her eyes opened. The girl looked around, confused for a second. “Wait. This isn’t my pad. Wait. I don’t have a pad. Where is this?”</p><p>“Gia! Keep the noise down!” Valrie tried to shuffle towards Gia. “You need to keep quiet.”</p><p>“Valrie! Hey! You have hair!” Gia attempted to reach towards Valrie’s head, only to realise her hands were tightly tied. “Why are my hands tied? I’m not against kinky stuff, but I like to be asked first. Why are we tied up, Valrie?”</p><p>“Will you shut the fuck up!” She hissed at Gia as the Super Mutant came even closer.</p><p>Too late. The Super Mutant saw Gia scrambling against her bonds. It stomped towards them both, crossing the distance with long strides. It grabbed Gia by the scruff of her neck and lifted her up, thrusting its face close to Gia’s. Gia lost all colour in her face, her mouth working, but no sound emerging, her eyes wide and filled with terror.</p><p>“Human quiet, or human die.” It growled into Gia’s face and all Gia could do was whimper as warm liquid dribbled from the leg of her pants. With a flick of its hand, the Super Mutant tossed Gia back to the ground.</p><p>As the Super Mutant moved on, Gia shuffled up against the wall, desperate to feel something comforting, if only the cold mud of the trench wall. Tears streamed down the girl’s face as Valrie tried to get as close as possible to her young friend, resting her shoulder beneath Gia’s chin, leaning in and kissing the girl’s head.</p><p>“It’s okay, Gia. It’s okay.” Valrie could feel Gia’s entire body shaking.</p><p>“I peed myself.” Gia sobbed into Valrie’s shoulder.</p><p>“Don’t you worry about that. I’m here. I’m with you.” She wasn’t used to be being the caring person in any kind of relationship, either with her few lovers, or with almost as few friends. She was the hard ass. The one without cares. Right now, she needed to care.</p><p>“I can’t. I won’t!” The young girl couldn’t get any closer to Valrie if she tried, staring down at the floor, mumbling, weeping. “They took her. I hid and they took her and I followed and watched. They turned her into one of them. My mom. They took my mom! I won’t be turned into one. I won’t! I’ll die first. I’ll die!”</p><p>“Gia! You have to listen to me.” It was difficult, but Valrie to tried to be gentle as she used her shoulder to nudge Gia’s chin upwards, to look into her eyes. “I need you to be brave. Braver than you’ve ever fucking been. I need you to think of Patience. She’s coming for us. You know she is. I fucking know she is. Be brave, like Patience.”</p><p>“Like Patience?” Gia sniffed through the sobs, a blob of snot dribbling from her nose. Without thinking, the girl rubbed her nose on Valrie’s coat.</p><p>“Yeah. Be brave. Be a fucking hero. Just like Patience.” Once again, Valrie leaned in and kissed Gia’s head. The girl needed the comfort.</p><p>“Interesting.” The voice boomed from behind Valrie and she knew, without even looking, who, or rather, what the voice came from. The Super Mutant ‘King’. “I know you.”</p><p>With his huge sword in hand, the King stepped into view. It cocked its head to the side and crouched down before Valrie and Gia. Even crouching, it still would have towered over them both. The King even appeared to smile as it reached out a huge, meaty hand, gently turning Valrie’s face from one side to the other.</p><p>“And I know you, too, you big ugly mother fucker.” She spat into the King’s face and regretted it immediately. She didn’t care if she died, but she may just have killed Gia, too. “Go fuck yourself.”</p><p>“Feisty! I like feisty. It makes all this even more fun.” The King laughed, wiping the spit from its face and then rubbed its hand on Valrie’s coat. It turned to a Super Mutant beside it and stood up. “These two. Do not damage them!”</p><p>The King strode away, throwing its sword onto its shoulder, still laughing. The other Super Mutant pulled Valrie and Gia to their feet and pushed them forwards to follow the King. Valrie looked at Gia, still terrified, still crying, but with a hint of defiance in her eyes. Gia’s way of being brave.</p><p>Unfortunately, what Valrie had told Gia was bullshit. She was lucky the girl didn’t know that. Patience wasn’t coming. Valrie doubted she was even alive, but, even if she was, there was no way she could get to them. As they turned the curve in the trench and saw what was ahead, she realised how true that was.</p><p>When she got to thirty Super Mutants and lost count, she knew she was as good as dead.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Through the scope Vincent had borrowed from the Brotherhood of Steel, Patience watched from her prone position above the trench network as she saw Valrie and Gia pushed through the doorway into what she could only imagine was a bunker of some kind. She lowered the scope and chewed on a fingernail as she considered her next move.</p><p>Raising the scope again, she surveyed the trench network and tried to count the number of Super Mutants and captives. There were around a hundred Super Mutants and almost as many captives, that she could see. Some areas of the trench network were out of her sight line and they could hide the same numbers of Super Mutants and captives.</p><p>Using stealth, she could, most likely, reach the bunker door undetected. Getting in, finding Valrie and Gia and getting out again would be another thing entirely. Two Super Mutants guarded the door entrance and movement in and out of the bunker by Super Mutants made keeping track was difficult. Apart from the different pieces of scrap they used for armour, she had no way of telling the creatures apart. They could be the same ones coming and going or different ones altogether.</p><p>She snapped her sidearm upwards at the sound coming from her left, only lowering it when she saw Vincent scrambling towards her, keeping extra low. He dropped to the ground beside her and raised his own scope to survey the area below. His power armour stood, looming and impassive a few feet behind where they lay.</p><p>“I’ve set charges in several locations up towards the Washington Memorial.” He used his hand to indicate the areas. “Say the word and I’ll suit up and be in position before you know it.”</p><p>“There’s too many of them.” She flipped over onto her back, staring up at the cloudless sky. “It’s going to be a bloodbath.”</p><p>“What are you talking about? If anybody comes to help, and that’s a big if, they know to retreat as soon as they’re fired upon. You heard Three Dog on the radio.” He raised the scope again and lowered it just as quick. “Look, I won’t say it’s the greatest plan ever, but it’s all we have. You can’t back out now. Valrie and Gia are down there.”</p><p>“I know, and so are dozens of captured civilians.” She covered her face with her hands, rubbing until her face burned. “We start this, they’re all going to die. I can’t justify their deaths for two people. Can I?”</p><p>“Are you crazy? What? Are you just going to abandon Valrie and Gia?” She heard him sigh. “Listen, all those people? They’re already dead, or worse, they just don’t know it yet. Doing this, sticking to the plan isn’t going to change a damned thing as far as that’s concerned. Dead with the plan, dead without the plan. Dead or turned into those things.”</p><p>“No. I can’t.” She looked at the Pip-Boy on her arm, still blinking those words. ‘Proceed to Location Two’. She could zoom in and see where Location Two was. Right where that door to the bunker stood. “I’m going in alone.”</p><p>“The hell you are!” Vincent grabbed her jaw and turned her head to face him. There was genuine anger there. Genuine concern. “We stick to the damned plan! We stick to the mission! If I don’t draw those shits away from you, you’ll be dead before you even reach the girls.”</p><p>“I’m dead anyway.” She tapped the screen in her Pip-Boy. “I go down there and this thing activates, or I have to activate it. Doesn’t matter. This, whatever this is, kills me or the King kills me, I’m dead either way.”</p><p>“We stick to the plan!” He growled. He wasn’t listening. Retreating back into his training. Follow the plan. Complete the mission.</p><p>Without any warning, she rolled over from her back, mounting his back, wrapping her left arm under his throat, grabbing the crook of her other elbow and pushing the back of his head down with her right arm. She squeezed. Vincent tried to push himself upwards, but she slipped her feet between his legs, pushing them apart. Still, he pushed up with one arm as he scrabbled to pull her arm from his throat. She held on tight, cutting off his blood flow. Faster than choking him, but more chance of hurting him. It was a choice she was willing to make.</p><p>Still, he struggled for longer than she expected. The tough bastard. It felt like long minutes had passed, but she knew it was only seconds. He slumped forwards, unconscious, and she released her hold, checking his pulse. Thready, but alive. She pushed herself back up, rolling to the side and picking up her Chinese assault rifle.</p><p>She didn’t know how long Vincent would remain unconscious. She hoped it would be long enough for her to reach the bunker, at least, then there would be no need for the distraction they had planned. No need for the charges to blow. No need to set the Super Mutants into a panic. It would be her against the King and any Super Mutant that got in her way. She checked the bandolier of grenades, ‘borrowed’ from the Brotherhood of Steel, and her ammo pouches.</p><p>Satisfied, she started out towards the trench network, keeping low, switching from cover to cover, avoiding silhouetting herself against the night sky. Super Mutants, apart from the King, weren’t the greatest of minds but even they could tell the signs of a human moving in the night.</p><p>Several times, she threw herself to the ground as Super Mutants came into view, grumbling and growling to themselves, slouching and stomping through the trenches. It was a miracle that she wasn’t caught, but then, turning around a sharp bend in the trench, her luck ran out.</p><p>Somehow, she had found herself near a group of captives, kneeling upon the ground of the trench, their hands tied behind their backs. She didn’t know if these captives had moved here after she entered the trenches, or whether they had been out of sight when she’d surveyed the area. Either way, they saw her.</p><p>“Help us! You have to help us!” Several voices, all begging the same thing. Men, women, children. Staring, wide-eyed and terrified, pleading. “Help us!”</p><p>Urging panicking people to be quiet would do no good and their cries carried, bouncing against the walls of the trenches. Caught by the ears of a Super Mutant. It lumbered from a side trench, ready to deal out heavy-handed retribution against those talking, until it saw Patience.</p><p>“Human escape?” It spied Patience’s weapons, licking its curled back lips. “No. New human. Dead human!”</p><p>The Super Mutant punched its massive fist into its hand and began moving towards her. It was too late, now, to care about going undetected. She’d blown it and now she’s signed Valrie and Gia’s death warrants. She brought her rifle up to bear upon the Super Mutant, aiming for its bulbous face.</p><p>And then there was an explosion. To the east, a flash of warm, orange light plumed over the tops of the trenches, briefly lighting up the towering needle of the Washington Memorial. Then another explosion occurred and then another. Vincent had not remained unconscious long. Another explosion followed and then another. And then something strange happened.</p><p>She heard shouting. From all sides. Not Super Mutants, but human voices. Shouting and screaming from beyond the edges of the trenches and the voices were then joined by gunfire and the smaller explosions of grenades. The Wastelanders had come!</p><p>The explosions, gunfire and shouts had distracted the Super Mutant, confusing its mutated brain. It seemed to have forgotten Patience was there. But she hadn’t forgotten it. She shoved her rifle up close to its face and squeezed the trigger, sending bullets ripping through the creature’s face turning it into an unrecognisable mush, before it fell backwards to the ground.</p><p>Patience grabbed a sharp, shard of metal from the Super Mutant’s belt, presumably some kind of knife. She ran to the civilians and cut the bonds of the first one, handing them the shard to cut the others free. She pointed in the direction they needed to run and then turned the other way.</p><p>She had her friends to save.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Chapter 25</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>25</p><p>He couldn’t believe Patience had cheap-shotted him like that. Then again, thinking about how blurred and flexible that hero complex of hers was, he could.</p><p>Regaining consciousness, with his face in the dirt, he felt like leaving her to it. Damn the woman and her stupid ideas! As soon as the mushed feeling in his head cleared, he picked up the scope and tried to search for her in the twisting darkness of the trenches, lit only by the strips of lights and barrels burning at various points. He couldn’t find her, not that he expected to be able to.</p><p>What he could see were the dozens of Super Mutants that the idiot was going to try to sneak her way past. It wasn’t going to happen. Super Mutants may not be the brightest of individuals but neither were they completely stupid. Patience was going to get caught and, as much as he felt she’d deserve everything she got, for being such a fool, at the very least, he couldn’t sit here and let that happen.</p><p>He pounded the dried mud with his fist as he fought with his instincts. Looking over his shoulder, he glared at the power armour. What was the point of getting the damned suit if she was going to throw the plan out of the window and go solo into enemy territory? Well, as his drill instructor always told him, stick to the plan until the plan got busted, then make another plan. He still had the power armour. He still had the mini-gun and he still had the charges, ready to blow.</p><p>Scrambling backwards until he was sure he was out of sight, he then stood up and ran, crouching towards the armour. He’d taped the detonator to the left arm of the armour. All he had to do was get into position and then light it up. He’d heard tales of a mid-year celebration, once, where people sent mini explosives flying into the air. Where people would gather, families and friends, celebrating together. Maybe, after tonight, they might restart that tradition in his name.</p><p>He couldn’t let Patience hog all the glory.</p><p>The power armour folded in around him and he began to control his breathing, as his instructors had taught him. Things could get hot inside the armour, the enclosed space could cause some rookies to panic, but not him. Not tonight. He felt the electric thrill of the armour powering up around him. Servos resetting, pistons preparing, electrical systems powering through pre-combat checks. Everything was a go.</p><p>Bending one knee, he reached down, picking up the mini-gun, almost weightless in the grip of his armoured hands, ammunition bag attached to the rear of the armour. He tested the rotation of the mini-gun, the barrels whipping around with that unmistakeable whine that would be the last, worst thing anyone would hear facing the wrong end of the weapon. Satisfied, he piloted the armour back over to the area where he’d set the charges.</p><p>As he moved along the mall, his armoured feet crunching loose stone with each step, the sensors within the helmet brought up movement in various places on all sides of the trench network. More idiots, like himself, dragged into this foolish enterprise, but, he’d be damned if Patience hadn’t got people out there. People, as Three Dog would say, willing to fight the Good Fight.</p><p>He reached the penetration point. The area where he and Patience had decided would be best to have the Super Mutants running to once all hell broke loose. He made the armour rest on one knee as he placed the mini-gun on the ground beside him. He was already sweating in the armour, through exertion or through adrenalin rushing through his body, he didn’t know. Could be he was still feeling the effects of the StimPak. Either way, his heart pumping, he was ready to push the button.</p><p>“And what the hell do you think you’re doing, Brother Vincent?” The electronically modulated voice came from behind and Vincent swivelled around towards it.</p><p>“Knight Captain Hazel?” The unmistakeable armour of the Knight Captain loomed over his kneeling form. Behind the Captain, Vincent could see others, Knight Foreman, Knight Bitterman, Knight Kowalski and three others, hidden by the other bulky Brotherhood of Steel members. “I can explain.”</p><p>“I’m sure you can, soldier. Like how a shit-ton of supplies mysteriously go missing just as an ‘accident’ smoked out the entire lower floor of the GNR building?” Knight Captain Hazel made her armour take a knee beside Vincent, the other six following suit. “Or, maybe, you can explain why the fuck you haven’t returned to your assigned mission?”</p><p>Vincent struggled to find the right words that wouldn’t end with his Court Martial. He looked down at his arm, the detonator, bright red, begging him to press it, and then he looked back towards the trenches. Down there, somewhere, Patience was about to get her stupid ass killed. He could kowtow to orders, right here, and let her die alone, but he had to decide.</p><p>“With respect, Sir. I don’t give a shit about my assigned task.” He waited, expecting the bawl out of the century.</p><p>“Good to hear, soldier. Three Dog told us some home truths, earlier. Kind of made us feel like shit. We don’t like feeling like shit. Ain’t that right, boys and girls?” Vincent heard distorted voices sounding off in agreement. “So, what’s the situation?”</p><p>“I have charges placed at this end of the trenches. The plan is to raise hell, get the Super Mutants running this way, then make a tactical withdrawal, keeping them out of the way while the civilian, Patience, infiltrates the enemy lines to rescue her friends.” With her helmet on, Vincent couldn’t tell what Knight Captain Hazel was thinking. “To rescue our friends.”</p><p>“Tactical withdrawal, huh?” Hazel nodded and scanned towards the trenches below. “But you’re not going to withdraw, are you, Brother Vincent? I’m not stupid. You know a tactical withdrawal won’t keep the big yellow snots occupied long enough. You’re going in.”</p><p>Vincent said nothing. Even with their faces covered by the power armour helmets, Knight Captain Hazel could read all of them like cheap books. Nothing escaped her. He had made the decision as soon as his head had cleared after regaining consciousness. He couldn’t let Patience down again. Sticking to plans, following orders, staying on mission, it all meant nothing if it didn’t stand for something. Going in to give Patience time? That stood for something.</p><p>“Yes, Sir.” His hand hovered over the detonator on his arm.</p><p>“Then what are you waiting for, soldier? Raise some hell!” She turned to the other Knights, raising her firearm in the air. “Come on you apes! Do you want to live forever?”</p><p>All eight of them raised up to their full power armoured heights. Vincent felt something he hadn’t felt in a long while. Maybe even ever. He felt pride.</p><p>He pressed the detonator and watched as explosions plumed along the edge of the trenches, lighting the sky for miles around and, in the light of the explosions he could see dozens, perhaps hundreds of people lining the trenches. This was a celebration and friends and families had come to celebrate with them.</p><p>-+-</p><p>With the detonation of the charges and the tumult of the Wastelanders’ ‘attack’, the majority of the Super Mutants fell into disarray. The captives she freed ran in the direction she indicated, forgotten by their captors and Patience hugged the trench wall, crouched beside a makeshift barrel brazier, its contents burning low.</p><p>Patience found luck to be with her as, one after the other, Super Mutants ran towards the far end of the trench network, heading out to counter the attack that she hoped wasn’t really happening and passing her by, unnoticed. She had made it clear to Three Dog that she only needed a distraction, not an all out war. If people died to give her the opportunity to save two people, it would be a wasteful sacrifice, as far as she felt concerned.</p><p>As soon as the activity around her died down, moving further up the trenches, Patience began to move towards the bunker door where the King had taken her friends. She could hear the noises of gunfire, rifles, shotguns and mini-guns, all unmistakeable sounds to her ears. Explosions from grenades and even missiles echoed through the tight trench network. It didn’t sound like only a distraction. She cursed herself for not making her orders clear enough.</p><p>Regardless, she was here, now, and she needed to find her way to the bunker. Anyone else could become confused by the intricate nature of the trenches, but she had the network memorised seconds after observing it through her scope. Two more turns and she’d be there.</p><p>Poking her head around the first corner, she saw the coast was clear. She pushed down the urge to run to the next corner, instead she crouch walked, sweeping her rifle forwards and back, keeping every angle of attack covered as much as one person could.</p><p>Half-way to the next corner, she almost fired as someone ran around the corner. It was a human. A man. Half-crazed, he ran towards her, screaming and staring at his hands. She lowered her rifle, trying to grab him to tell him the direction to run. He stared at her as if she were a Super Mutant.</p><p>“He cut me! He cut me and himself. Oh, god!” Patience grabbed the man’s hand, turning it over. She saw a cut on his palm that appeared to be healing. The hand swollen and discoloured in the light of the strings of bulbs attached to the trench walls. “He’s making me into one of them!”</p><p>Before Patience’s eyes, she saw the man begin to transform. His hands swelling and growing, his face bubbling, his hair falling out in chunks, landing at his feet. As she watched, he began to grow in height, his clothes ripping and tearing as his muscles expanded.</p><p>She took out her sidearm and shot him five times in the face. It was a mercy.</p><p>Patience didn’t have time to debate with herself over her action. Taking one last look to make certain the man was dead, she replaced her sidearm, raised her rifle back into position and continued on to the next corner, keeping low. She could berate herself later about killing an innocent man, right now, she had to keep moving.</p><p>Reaching the last corner before the bunker, she eased her head around in a fast reconnaissance. As she had feared, the bunker door still had two Super Mutants guarding it. Why they hadn’t joined in the fray at the far end of the trenches, she didn’t know. It was possible the King had greater authority over some of the creatures more than others, or that they were simply too stupid to disobey orders. Either way, they were between her and the bunker door and she had to get through them to reach it.</p><p>She took a few seconds to breathe and prepare for the assault and then had a thought. She raised her left arm and switched on her Pip-Boy. She flicked through the options until she found what she was looking for, firing up the ‘VATS’ option. She was going to need all the help she could get. As an afterthought, she turned on the radio, raising the volume to maximum and nodded in appreciation as Smiley Lewis and ‘I Hear You Knocking’ raged from the speaker.</p><p>Taking two grenades from the bandolier, she pulled the pins, holding the spring levers tight and walked around the corner.</p><p>“Hey! You! You ugly sons of bitches!” That caught the attention of the two Super Mutant guards and they began to lumber her way. She calculated the distance and sent the two grenades rolling along the ground towards them, ducking back around the corner.</p><p>The dual explosion sent debris flying past the corner, the wall of the trench shifted against her body and, what looked like, a Super Mutant hand spun through the air, slapping against the far wall of the trench. She gave it a couple of seconds and then whipped around the corner. The light from her Pip-Boy’s ‘VATS’ technology lit up the area, revealing both Super Mutants were still, somehow, alive.</p><p>She stalked through the haze left by the grenades and found the Super Mutants. One crawled back the way it had come, stretching its fat, yellow fingers back towards the legs the grenades had blown from its body. The other sat against the trench wall, clawing at its head with its one remaining hand, trying to push the skin of its face back up into position.</p><p>‘VATS’ recommended head shots for them both and she hated to disappoint the device. She stomped her foot in the chest of the one with no face and let loose half a magazine into its skull. Turning, she reached the other one, moaning pathetically as it tried to hold its leg to the wrong stump on its body. She finished the magazine into that one’s face.</p><p>She popped the empty magazine, placing it away into a pouch at her back and taking out a new magazine in the same movement. She slapped it into place and cycled the rifle, ready to launch more bullets into any Super Mutant that came her way.</p><p>Almost disappointed that no reinforcements came, she moved on towards the bunker door.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Valrie couldn’t feel her arms anymore, the ropes cutting in to her wrists, and she waggled her fingers, desperate to get some blood flowing, however small an amount. She wondered how the Super Mutants were able to tie the ropes so tight with their fat, cumbersome fingers. A strange thought to make as the creatures led them down, further into the bunker.</p><p>Gia had stopped crying, letting out the occasional sniff, but Valrie could tell the girl still felt terrified under the eyes of the Super Mutants. That little revelation, of her parents taken and turned into these monsters, had hit Valrie. Gia had seemed so fresh and cheeky and vibrant. She had no idea that the girl had such trauma in her past.</p><p>Everyone had a tale, in the Wasteland, some were more tragic than others and Valrie had, like many others, become anaesthetised to it all. Gia’s story had hit home. It could be the amount of time they had spent together had caused Valrie to care about the girl a little more than she expected. Or it could be having your parents ripped away from you and transformed into Super Mutants before your eyes happened to be one of the more horrific stories she’d heard. Either way, she wished she could throw off the ropes and give Gia a hug.</p><p>“Where do you think they’re taking us?” Gia thought she was whispering, but it came out in an echoing hiss, causing one of the Super Mutants to turn and growl.</p><p>“I don’t know.” She avoided Gia’s eyes.</p><p>Only moments ago, a man had passed them, pushed by another Super Mutant, staring at his hands and babbling. In the dim bulkhead lights, Valrie had seen the discolouration of the man’s skin, the cut on the palm of his hand. And she had caught a couple of the words he ranted. Somehow, the Super Mutants had infected him. It wouldn’t be long until that man became a Super Mutant himself and she feared that was what was going to happen to them, too.</p><p>Eventually, they found themselves shoved into a room. It was stark. Almost empty, save for a line of five, terrified civilians against one wall and the Super Mutant King stood before them, leaning on its sword. The King’s head almost brushed the ceiling as it inspected the civilians. It turned and smiled as Valrie and Gia found themselves forced into the room.</p><p>“Ah! My newest recruits.” The King pointed to the wall. “Untie them and line them up.”</p><p>One of the Super Mutants grabbed Valrie, spinning her around. It then cut the ropes from her wrists, pushing her against the wall and repeated the process with Gia. The pins and needles sensation hit Valrie’s arms straight away as the blood rushed back into her hands. She rubbed them and shook them, trying to ease the pain as soon as she could.</p><p>“Don’t bet on me not trying to kill you, you ugly fuck.” It was bravado. She had nothing else to fight with. “Give it a few minutes and our friend’ll be down here blowing every last one of you fuckers to hell.”</p><p>“Good. I’m counting on it!” The King moved to the other side of the room, leaning its sword against the wall, then returned to stand before the humans. “She may just be what I’m looking for.”</p><p>“You won’t have to wait for long, asshole! Patience will come for us!” Valrie had to hold Gia back as the young ex-raider found her bravery, even as she still appeared terrified.</p><p>“Patience. That’s what she calls herself now?” The King looked up, nodding his head. “You know, I wasn’t certain it was her. She smelled familiar, but that look in her eyes? That was different. Took me a day or two to work out that she was what I needed.”</p><p>“You don’t know her. Don’t try to fuck with us, snot boy.” Valrie wished the creature would get it over and done with. Mutated or killed. Anything to end the whole damned thing.</p><p>“Oh, I know her. Well, of her. We’re the same, she and I.” The King showed Valrie its left arm, a series of scars and holes dotted the forearm. “I’m from the same vault. The same experiment. I was supposed to end the Super Mutant menace, but look at me now. I rule.”</p><p>“You’re nothing like her! She’s kind and brave and she’s coming. Coming to kick your ass!” Gia tried to shake Valrie’s hands from her shoulders. What she thought she could do, Valrie didn’t know. The King, meanwhile, laughed. A heavy, rumbling laugh.</p><p>“They sent me out here, just like they sent her. To infect the Super Mutants with a new virus. One to end their threat once and for all. Instead, it made me into this, King of the Super Mutants. All the power and strength, but with all my intelligence and skills.” Placing his huge hand on Gia’s head, the King ruffled her hair, playful. “When she gets here, right where we’re stood, her Pip-Boy will activate. A powerful version of the virus will surge through her body and, within seconds, I’ll have a queen to rule at my side. With two of us, we’ll own this world.”</p><p>“You are one fucked up son of a bitch if you think she’ll join you.” Valrie squeezed Gia’s shoulders. The girl no longer struggled to get at the King.</p><p>Everyone’s heads turned as the sound of an explosion came echoing and reverberating down the tunnel from the entrance. The King grinned, taking a knife from behind its back. He cut a deep slash into its own hand and then grabbed the hand of one of the civilians, cutting it and forcing their cut against its own. It repeated the action with the other four civilians and pushed them out of the doorway, back towards the entrance.</p><p>“Just a little something to keep her occupied.” The King gave Valrie a grotesque looking wink. “The virus will work faster if she’s tired. Hold them. Keep them quiet.”</p><p>The two Super Mutants grabbed Valrie and Gia, putting their huge hands over their mouths. Valrie gagged at the smell, but there was nothing she could do. She couldn’t even move her head as she tried to look to the side for Gia. Patience was coming, but what she didn’t realise was, she wasn’t coming to destroy the Super Mutants. She was coming to join them.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Chapter 26</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>26</p><p>She had seen the Super Mutant coming towards the door as she began to enter the bunker. In a flash, she had taken another grenade, removed the pin and let the lever fly, counting a second before launching it towards the creature. Ducking back out of the door, she pressed herself flat against the wall. The bunker door swung out from the pressure of the blast, twisting off one of its hinges.</p><p>Even before the dust cleared, she reentered the bunker, ready to pour bullets into the Super Mutant, only to find it collapsed on the ground, a sizeable hole in its chest, the thick skin peeled back exposing damaged, burnt organs and seeping blood.</p><p>She sidestepped the creature, holding her rifle to bear upon it until she had passed. It didn’t move. Further into the bunker, she could hear shouting, or screaming. She couldn’t tell which, the voices echoing and distorting as they travelled through the concrete and metal tunnels towards her. There was an oppressive air about the place. A feeling of claustrophobia that only worsened the further she edged deeper into the bunker.</p><p>Reaching a room at the end of a short flight of stairs, she saw only one door, opposite the entrance, and tensed as she heard movement coming towards her. Her Pip-Boy flashed a warning. It couldn’t discern whether whatever was approaching was human or not, switching between displaying ‘human’ and ‘unknown’. When the approaching figure burst through the doorway, she understood why.</p><p>Like the man she had killed above, another human, a woman, racing towards her, screaming. The woman had already begun to transform, her hands and arms extending beyond normal lengths, thick veins pulsing, skin yellowing. The Pip-Boy identified several points to shoot, flashing upon the chest area. Patience did not hesitate.</p><p>The bullets ripped into the transforming woman’s chest, tearing into her hardening flesh. Flesh that was not yet hard enough. The woman dropped to the ground like a brick, almost rolling over her head with the momentum of her mad charge. Patience did not have time to check her magazine before two more semi-humans flew through the doorway.</p><p>She fired without settling on the designated area the Pip-Boy highlighted, catching one of the semi-humans on the shoulder tearing off a large chunk of the muscle, before he, it, slammed its body into her. She lost her grip on her rifle and it dropped, dangling against her chest. The semi-human and its companion fell upon Patience, dragging her to the floor.</p><p>The semi-humans grunted and growled as they attempted to rip into her flesh with their bare fingers, growing larger every second, pressing greater and greater weight down upon her, forcing her rifle to dig into her chest. She couldn’t breathe. She tried to push back, to gain some space, but the semi-humans gave her no quarter. Desperate, she reached for her sidearm, bringing it up under the chin of one of the semi-humans and firing until the action locked back, out of bullets.</p><p>The semi-human’s head almost exploded from the stream of bullets sending flesh and blood spattering upwards in a grotesque shower. The other semi-human dragged the dead one from atop Patience and fell upon her, punching at scratching. Patience knew there was little chance of reloading her sidearm. All she could do was fend off the scratches, twist and cover from the punches, but the semi-human was becoming more Super Mutant by the second.</p><p>In desperation, she twisted her hips to the side, pulling her legs out and upwards. She dragged the semi-human’s arm to the side, with much effort, and wrapped her legs around the creature’s neck. Gripping the creature as tight as possible, tying her own legs together, she pushed the creature’s arm across its own throat and squeezed with every ounce of strength she had left.</p><p>The creature struggled, its strength increasing by the second, but Patience held on. It lifted her into the air and slammed her back to the ground, knocking the air from her lungs, and still she held on. Soon, its movements became sluggish, weaker, but Patience did not loosen her grip until she felt certain the thing was out cold. As soon as she felt sure, she rolled it off her body. Rising, unsteady, to her feet she moved behind the semi-human, grabbed its chin and the back of its head and twisted, as hard as she could, until she heard a horrible cracking sound.</p><p>She collapsed against the bodies of the creatures, her chest heaving, her body aching from the blows and the scratches from their attack. She almost closed her eyes, leaning her face against the blood covered bodies, until she saw her sidearm on the ground a foot or so away. She crawled over the bodies to reach it, releasing the weapon’s magazine.</p><p>It even ached to reach into her ammo pouch for a fresh clip, but she got one, slipping it into the sidearm and ratcheting a fresh round into the chamber. She fell. So tired. Injured. She had to get back up. To continue further into the bunker. To find Valrie and Gia. Somehow, by sheer force of will, she made herself stand, returning her sidearm to its holster. She began to reach for another magazine for her rifle.</p><p>“Stupid human.” In her exhaustion, she hadn’t heard them coming.</p><p>Two more semi-humans. No. Almost Super Mutants. They stood inside the doorway, hoarse breathing coming out as grunts from flattened, almost nose-less faces. Heavy eyebrow ridges hooding their beady eyes, their shoulders rising and falling with the heavy breaths, fighting to fill their expanded lungs with oxygen.</p><p>Patience stumbled back against the wall, the Pip-Boy flashing targets upon the Super Mutant bodies, but she didn’t have the strength. Instead, she begged for Valrie and Gia’s forgiveness, in silence, as she tugged at the clasp on the bandolier of grenades. In a haze, she counted four left and, with shaky fingers, clasped all four pins and pulled. She threw the bandolier at the feet of the Super Mutants and collapsed behind the bodies of the semi-humans she had killed.</p><p>The explosion picked her up and tossed her against the wall, shrapnel tearing into her body. The brunt of the explosion, however, had slammed into the bodies of the semi-humans, ripped apart by the grenades, as were the almost fully transformed Super Mutants. Patience had been lucky.</p><p>She didn’t feel lucky. She felt like she was dying.</p><p>“Oh, no, no, no, little vault dweller. We’re not having that.” As she slipped into unconsciousness, she heard those words. A deep, reverberating voice and thick fingers moving her grey hair from her eyes. “We’re not having that at all. I can’t have my queen dying on me.”</p><p>-+-<br/>She felt sick. She should be in pain, but all she felt was sick.</p><p>Opening her eyes, she tried to look around. She could move and, when she saw the leering face of the Super Mutant King looking down upon her, she scrambled backwards, reaching for her sidearm at her hip. Her hand enclosed on nothing, however. The sidearm wasn’t there. The strap that held her Chinese assault rifle dangled upon her chest, the rifle also missing.</p><p>The King stood up to its full height and towered above her, yet she still stared in defiance at the monstrosity. To her left, from the corner of her eye, she saw Valrie and Gia, held by two Super Mutants. Still tall, still hulking, they looked like children next to their King.</p><p>“Patience! That bastard ...” With a wave of its hand, the King ordered Valrie silenced and Valrie’s voice muffled as the Super Mutant holding her clamped its huge hand over her mouth.</p><p>“Leave her alone! Or I’ll ...” Patience tried to stand, pushing against the floor, and felt a discomfort, not pain, on her palm. She lifted her hand to see a deep gash in her hand, the edges knitting together as she watched.</p><p>“What your foul mouthed friend is trying to warn you is that I’ve infected you.” The King crossed its arms, grinning, its distorted face curling into thick wrinkles. “The virus that made me? It’s working its way through your system as we speak. Healing you. Changing you. Soon, you’ll be just like my friends here. A Super Mutant. Ready to do my every bidding.”</p><p>The King wasn’t lying. She could feel her body changing. The slight yellowing of her skin. That thought sickened her even more. She looked over at Gia, the girl’s eyes almost pleading with her. She couldn’t let her see someone else transform into one of those things. She glanced at the Super Mutant nearest to her, holding Valrie, and saw a long makeshift knife in its belt.</p><p>She launched herself towards it, only for the King to move with surprising speed, catching her arm and pulling her back. She swung a fist at the King’s jaw, feeling it connect and several bones in her hand crack against the creature’s transformed skin and skull. It didn’t faze the creature in the slightest.</p><p>“Let them go. You’ve got me. You don’t need them.” The King flicked his hand, sending her spinning to the far side of the room, away from the other Super Mutants, Valrie and Gia. She caught her balance, steadying herself. “Let. Them. Go.”</p><p>“Let them go? Are you crazy? After the stunt you and your friends have pulled upstairs, I’m going to need every body I can get to rebuild my army.” The King paced up and down in front of her friends. “And when you transform and join me, we’ll take the Wasteland. We’ll feed on it. Chew on the bones. Suck on the marrow. My kingdom growing fat until we spread out across the whole country. You have a message, by the way.”</p><p>Almost casual, the King pointed towards her Pip-Boy. There was, indeed, a flashing message on the screen. ‘Location two - Confirmed’ and, below that, ‘Activate infusion’. She touched the screen and saw her fingers had expanded, fattening, even in the short time she from awakening. She began to move her hand to the dial, to start the infusion, and stopped.</p><p>“Why would you want me to do that?” She dropped her arm, squinting her eyes, furrowing her brow. “This, this is a weapon. I’m a weapon. Against you and all your fat headed yellow buddies. Why would you want me to activate it?”</p><p>“Good. You’re a smart one. Just what I need.” A low, rumbling chuckle emanated from the King’s barrel of a chest. “Go on. Activate it. Become the weapon. Do it! Destroy the big bad Super Mutants once and for all.”</p><p>“Fucking answer me, damn it! Why? What will it do?” She heard a cracking noise. It came from her leg as the bones stretched, broke and stitched back together. The leather pants, that fitted so snug before, popped at the stitching. She tried to manoeuvre back towards the Super Mutant with the knife.</p><p>“It will make you like me. I mean, you already are becoming like me. I saw to that.” It waved a slab of a hand, showing the dwindling gash on its palm. “Those idiots in the vault thought it would infect the Super Mutants. Return them to their human states. They were wrong. It made something better. I’m bigger, faster, stronger than any Super Mutant ever and I kept all my smarts. That flashing button won’t destroy Super Mutants, it’ll improve them!”</p><p>She stared at the flashing words on the Pip-Boy screen. She didn’t know what to think, what to believe. The King could be speaking the truth. It could transform her into the same kind of creature as it, a Super-Super Mutant. It could also do exactly what she thought it would do, release a virus, incubated inside her, that would infect and destroy the Super Mutants once and for all.</p><p>“You’re lying.” Her voice sounded deeper, a growling accent to it. She looked at the King and the creature didn’t seem as tall as it once had.</p><p>“Maybe. Can you take that chance?” The King pointed at the other two Super Mutants holding her friends. “Better choose quick, or you’ll end up like them. Dull. Stupid. Disposable. Press that button and you become like me. All the benefits, none of the drawbacks. Stupid Mutant or Super-Duper Mutant. You decide, kid, but the clocks ticking. Tick tock, tick tock.”</p><p>“Patience? Don’t.” Gia struggled against the arms of the Super Mutant, ineffectual, not affecting the creature in the slightest, tears in her eyes. “Please don’t become one of them. Please! Not again!”</p><p>Tears rolled down Gia’s cheek. Patience turned to Valrie, she looked so small now, but Valrie’s eyes told her nothing. All Patience could see was trust. Trust that Patience would know what to do. That she would win. That she would beat this. But Patience wasn’t sure. The King was right about one thing. Her mind had begun to cloud, her thinking becoming simple, disjointed. She was turning into a Super Mutant, she didn’t know anything anymore.</p><p>“I don’t have time for this.” The King covered the distance between them in one step. It grabbed Patience’s arm, thick muscular, a sickly yellow. Turning the arm, he flicked the dial with surprising dexterity, then pressed the button to activate the infusion.</p><p>Patience felt pain, then. She felt freezing cold liquid flush into her arm through the various tubes embedded in her flesh. Electric shocks erupted through the wires, firing sharp, painful pulses into her body. Then, a second flush of liquids streamed into her veins, turning her blood to fire.</p><p>She screamed and couldn’t stop screaming.</p><p>-+-</p><p>Valrie had never been one for attachments, always keeping people at arm’s length, wandering through the broken society of the Capital Wasteland but never a part of it. Even as a child, growing up in a small community north of Megaton, now a barren empty place, she had felt removed even from her parents. When her parents died during one of the more severe winters, it almost came as a relief to have the chains holding her down broken.</p><p>She had chosen the life of a scavenger because it was a lonely life. Because it kept the contact with others at a minimum. She had taken in Wintergreen because he wasn’t a human, with all the problems that humans brought with them. Even her sexual dalliances were brief and faded away once her partners became too close. Wanting more. She always wanted less.</p><p>That had all changed upon finding the half-dead woman in the wastes to the south. At first, she had wanted to help her regain her strength and then set her on her way but, as time passed, the woman stirred something inside her. A motherly instinct? The need for a friend finally surfacing after all these years? Valrie couldn’t put a finger on the reason. All she knew was that she cared for Patience. A deep, pervading affection for the stern, earnest vault dweller.</p><p>And now her heart was breaking.</p><p>The thing before her was no longer Patience. It knelt upon one knee, one enormous fist resting on the ground, the other hand on the thick, mucous green thigh. The now bald head bowed. Shoulders heaving as it breathed air as if for the first time. The tight, leather armour hanging in tatters from a body that resembled the human form, only so much larger.</p><p>“Oh, Patience. My god.” The Super Mutant holding her had released the grip upon her mouth, its shoulders rolling as a deep, grating chuckle ran through its body. “You had to try to be the hero.”</p><p>“You fucking bastard! You ugly fucking bastard! Bring her back!” Beside her, Gia struggled against the meaty hands of the Super Mutant holding her, tears streaming down her face. Valrie had taken the young ex-raider to her heart, too. Seeing her broken up in this way almost causing Valrie’s heart to break all over again.</p><p>“Don’t cry, little one. This isn’t an end. It’s a beginning.” The King rubbed its hands together in glee, staring wide-eyed at its creation. “A new beginning. And you’re going to be part of it and you, old scavenger. You’ll both be part of our new army.”</p><p>“Stick your fucking army!” Valrie didn’t struggle, like Gia, she couldn’t find the energy. Everything seemed lost. All she had left, now, was her defiance. “So, you’ve won. So you’re going to take over the world. I don’t care anymore. There’s nothing worth living for, anyway. Fuck it.”</p><p>“Valrie! You can’t just give up. What would Patience do? What would she think?” Gia couldn’t even wipe her eyes, her voice beginning to croak from the tears and the stress and the terror.</p><p>“Patience is gone, Gia! She’s gone!” She jerked her chin towards the new Super Mutant kneeling before them, still unmoving. “Look at it. Look! That’s not her. She is gone!”</p><p>“Aww, listen to you two. Patience didn’t exist. She never did.” The King circled the creature that they once knew as Patience. “She was a product. Fed the same line as I was. ‘This is my wife ... Oh! She died, so now I’m going to train and train and train until I become the best soldier ever’. It was all an illusion. Layer upon layer of illusion. She didn’t even have a name, just a number.”</p><p>“What are you saying?” Valrie’s eyes narrowed. She wanted to believe the King was lying, but there would be no point to that. Patience had transformed. There was no reason to lie.</p><p>“She got to Vault-Tec HQ, right? Found some videos. Learned her ‘real’ name and that she was married?” The King turned its back on the nascent Super-Super Mutant. “It was a lie! I found the same thing. The ‘before’ video? That was layer one of the Simulated Reality. Me and her? We’re vault babies, born in the vault, brought up in the vault and turned into soldiers in the vault. There was no ‘wife’, no ‘cancer’. Nothing.”</p><p>Valrie looked upon the hunched form of the creature that used to be her friend. The whole thing, from the beginning, was some sick joke. A game played by psychotic scientists hidden in their nice safe vault. Twisting the minds of people and then setting them loose in the Wasteland. One had become this hateful thing, the King, the other became a hero. For a short time. Now, she had become another monster in a world full of them.</p><p>“Patience was real. The rest of it? Maybe. Maybe you aren’t lying. Maybe she was just some experiment, but the day she opened her eyes in the Wasteland, that’s when Patience was born. My friend. And she was more real than anyone I’ve ever known.” Valrie slumped, held up only by the hands of the Super Mutant holding her. “And now she’s dead.”</p><p>“‘Maybe’ I lied? Why would I lie? You know what? I don’t need you in my army. You’re too old anyway.” The King knelt in front of the new creature, holding it by both arms, pulling it to stand upright. It glared at the King. “I know. I know. It’s confusing at first, but the fog will clear. And you know what helps to clear a foggy head? Anger. Anger and violence. Gets the blood pumping. Now, kill the old woman.”</p><p>The King manoeuvred the new Super-Super Mutant, guiding it towards Valrie. The thing towered over her, almost as tall as the King itself. Almost as big and muscular. It stared down into Valrie’s eyes and Valrie could see nothing left of her friend in them. They were dead. As dead as Patience. The creature continued to stare at Valrie, breathing heavy, growling, curling back its lips.</p><p>“Patience! Don’t listen to it. You must still be in there. Please! Patience!” Gia hadn’t given up hope. There was little she could do, but she could hope, as Patience would have. Valrie wished she could find it in her to hope, but she couldn’t. She matched the creature’s stare, daring it to kill her.</p><p>“Go on. Kill the old woman, taste your first blood in your new body.” The King rubbed the shoulders of the creature. It came across as some kind of grotesque sex play. “Kill the woman and you will finally be my equal. My queen.”</p><p>“Nuh ... not ...” The creature struggled to articulate the words with its new mouth. “Not queen. Pay. Shens. Name Pay shens ... My name is Patience!”</p><p>The creature’s eyes widened. Its fists clenched and it roared. A deep throated roar that almost shook the walls of the bunker. It raised a fist and slammed it into the face of the Super Mutant holding Valrie and Valrie dropped to the ground. Patience may not be so dead after all.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0027"><h2>27. Chapter 27</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>27</p><p>After scattering the Super Mutants in the initial attack, Vincent and the other members of the team from the Brotherhood of Steel now had to contend with a vicious counter-attack. They found themselves pushed back and many of the Wastelanders had followed instructions, falling back and retreating as the Super Mutants pressed forward.</p><p>In one way, Vincent felt glad that the additional humans had followed the orders given them, over the radio, by Three Dog. On the other hand, he knew that without their help, he and his fellow Brotherhood Knights would find it next to impossible to press forward towards the bunker and help Patience, Valrie and Gia. Right now, they were on their own.</p><p>“We have to fall back!” Knight Captain Hazel called as several bullets from Super Mutant guns pinged off her armour. Their power armour had taken too many hits. Before long, the bullets would begin penetrating their metal suits.</p><p>“Not yet!” Vincent crouched down to swap out the belt feed for the mini-gun, tossing the empty pack aside. “We have to give them more time.”</p><p>He stood back up and pressed the fire button in the mini-gun, sending flashing, intermittent fire down into the trenches. The mini-gun barrel glowed a deep orange as it re-heated from overuse. To his left, Vincent saw Knight Kowalski take several hits of concentrated fire and soon his armour became pock marked, strained grinding and mechanical wheezing indicating the armour’s usefulness reaching its end.</p><p>Vincent moved in front of Kowalski, to give his Knight Brother time to evacuate the suit, and poured fire towards the Super Mutants ahead. The strategy failed. Kowalski pulled himself from the armour only to find himself cut down by gunfire from another direction. He hadn’t even managed to pick up his weapon.</p><p>“Brother Vincent! I am not willing to sacrifice any more of my people for a diversionary tactic!” Hazel poured gunfire ahead. “Knight Brothers! Fall back!”</p><p>The Brotherhood of Steel members began a leapfrog defensive retreat and Vincent cursed them. He cursed them and Patience, but most of all he cursed himself. He couldn’t retreat. He’d failed Patience, Valrie and Gia once and that was once too many.</p><p>He kneeled down once more, hidden by the bodies of several Super Mutants, cut to shreds by his mini-gun and the other weaponry. The mini-gun needed time to cool down and he needed time to think. Time, in the tightest of situations, that he did not have. There were no more options. He heard a couple of straggling explosions to the right. The last grenades. And then the gunfire from that side silenced.</p><p>As his eyes turned, within the helmet of his armour, he caught sight of something. Dropped by a Super Mutant early in the battle, without even being fired. He popped his head above the wall of bodies. The approaching Super Mutants congregated at the mouth of a nearby trench, preparing for their final assault.</p><p>He ticked off the seconds that his indecision lost him. Every second he hesitated was a second closer to the Super Mutants overrunning him. He rocked the power armour back and forth, readying it to move. It would be too slow, he knew it. He wouldn’t make it and he would get cut down by the bullets of over a dozen weapons. He had no choice.</p><p>He threw himself forwards and the onslaught of gunfire began almost immediately. He could almost feel the bullets ricochetting off the armour, like a million stones bouncing on a metal barrel. The power armour was not built to withstand this. Nor was it built for what he did next.</p><p>With all the power he could muster to the armour’s legs, he threw himself and the armour forward, tucking and rolling, ending almost in the exact spot he wanted. They never taught that in basic. Reaching down, he grabbed the missile launcher, almost thanking a god he didn’t believe in when he found a missile inserted, ready to fire. He threw the launcher over his shoulder, aimed towards the trench entrance, and the approaching horde of Super Mutants, and fired.</p><p>He didn’t wait for the missile to hit, he bent down and rummaged through the belongings of the Super Mutant the missile launcher had belonged to, finding what he needed. Two more missiles. The smoke from the first launch lingered in the air and he hadn’t even noticed that the missile had hit and exploded.</p><p>He looked up. The entrance to the trench was now a carpet of blood and Super Mutant body parts and still the Super Mutants came, stomping through the gore, the legs, the heads, the arms and the organs of their fallen comrades. Vincent almost dropped the next missile, inserting it into the launcher, preparing it to fire.</p><p>One Super Mutant ran faster than the others, too close for Vincent to fire at. He turned the launcher back towards the trench, fired towards the swarming Super Mutants there and dropped the launcher, preparing to receive the attacking Super Mutant.</p><p>The missile hit at the same time as the Super Mutant barrelled into him, great yellow fists pounding and battering at the armour. They rolled several times, falling into a ditch a little more shallow than a trench, and Vincent felt one of his legs land underneath the weight of him and the Super Mutant. He roared in pain as he felt bone and tendons stretch and break.</p><p>The Super Mutant didn’t give Vincent any time, returning to kneel on the power armour’s chest and pounding and pounding upon the chest and the helmet that Vincent wore, both protective coverings buckling. As the creature reached down to grasp both sides of the helmet, Vincent scrambled to reach his faithful .45, attached to the armour’s hip.</p><p>The Super Mutant squeezed with both hands upon the helmet and Vincent could feel the pressure rising, the sides buckling in closer to his skull. He couldn’t bring the .45 to bear on the creature’s head. A few .45 bullets to the gut wouldn’t kill it. And then he remembered what he still held in his other hand, the power armour’s gauntlet not opening unless commanded.</p><p>“Stupid human die!” The Super Mutant’s gurgling voice rang through the speakers in Vincent’s helmet.</p><p>“Go to hell, you ugly mother fucker.” Vincent pointed the .45 at the missile still held in his other hand and fired.</p><p>-+-</p><p>The Super Mutant slid down the wall, leaving a trail of blood, brain and fragments of skull embedded in the concrete. She looked at her hand, covered in the gore that had once been the Super Mutant’s face. Growling, she clenched her fist again and turned towards the Super Mutant holding Gia. It bared its teeth, tossing the ex-raider aside, sending her flying against the opposite wall. Patience, the thing that used to be Patience, launched herself forward.</p><p>And found herself stopped. The hand of the King against her chest.</p><p>“Good! That instinct, to kill, that’s what you are now. You killed the wrong target, but we’ll work on that.” With a flex of a powerful arm, the King pushed her backwards. “Now, kill the woman. Do as you’re told.”</p><p>“No.” It had taken a few minutes, but she felt her mind clearing. “I’m not yours to order around.”</p><p>The King turned its back on her. So confident in its strength, its power. It strode to its huge sword, picking it up as easy as picking up a pen. It spun the sword in its hand, in the enclosed space it whizzed past the face of Gia before the King controlled it to point at Gia’s neck.</p><p>“I’m not going to threaten your friends to make you comply, I’m going to kill them anyway, but I can make their deaths very slow and very painful.” The King bounced the tip of the sword in front of Gia’s terrified eyes. “One way or another, I will bring you to heel.”</p><p>“I’ll make a counter-offer. Let them go and I’ll do as you say. Their freedom for my obedience.” She almost felt normal, now. Bigger, more powerful, angrier, but her mind was her own.</p><p>She looked down at Valrie with new eyes. Her friend seemed so small, so fragile. The older woman’s eyes almost screamed ‘no’ to her, glancing down at a hand to her side. In the hand, she held the long dagger the Super Mutant had worn in its belt. Ever the opportunist. Patience made no sign that she saw it, unsure her new face would be able to express her thoughts with any subtlety.</p><p>“Interesting. You actually believe you have something to bargain with.” The tip of the sword dropped, the King leaning upon the grip. “No. I think I’ll kill them and beat the obedience into you instead.”</p><p>The drop of the sword tip gave Patience the opening she needed. She held out her hand to Valrie and felt the handle of the dagger slapped into her huge palm. Once again, she launched herself forward. This time, however, she anticipated the King’s move. It swept the sword upwards in an attempt to slice into her oncoming attack, but she slipped to the side, already finding herself adapting to her new body.</p><p>She slammed her shoulder into the chest of the King, a sound like thunder emanating from between them. They careened into the wall and she swung her elbow into the King’s face, following that up with two more, backwards elbows, cracking into its mouth. The other Super Mutant lumbered into view and a backhand swipe connected with its jaw, a sickening snap sounding as the jaw fell loose, wobbling.</p><p>The King overcame its initial shock, lifting Patience by the throat, slamming her head into the ceiling, and then again. Concrete cascaded from the hole Patience’s head made and she scrambled her fingers towards the King’s face. Still holding her by the throat, the King lifted its sword, pointing it at Patience’s stomach.</p><p>“You wanted to share our blood together? Well share it!” Pushing against the King’s face with one hand, she brought the dagger up and brought it down, through the back of her own hand, driving it into the King’s eye.</p><p>The King roared in pain, throwing Patience, with immense strength, to the other side of the room, ripping her hand in two as it tore away from the dagger. The King reached up and pulled the dagger from the remains of its eye, dropping it to the floor, and sprinted for the door, dragging its sword along with it.</p><p>Patience wanted to chase after the King, felt the anger and the bloodlust roll in her stomach, but she stopped herself. She may look like a monster but, for now, Patience remained in control. She crouched down before Gia, clutching her damaged hand to her chest. Gia flinched, at first, but then reached out, touching Patience’s cheek, pity in her eyes.</p><p>“Patience.” Valrie stood beside Patience, now, pulling a roll of bandage from one of her pockets and beginning to tie the ripped hand together. “You can’t stay here. You have to stop the King.”</p><p>“I need to protect you and Gia. Get you safe.” Patience could hear how strange and rumbling her new voice sounded.</p><p>“No. If you don’t stop it, it’ll just start making new Super Mutants again.” Valrie jerked the ends of the bandage tight, but Patience didn’t feel any pain. “You catch that fucker and you kick the living shit out of it. You hear me? You kill that fucker!”</p><p>Patience took one last look at her friends, Gia mouthing ‘go’ to her. She hesitated, picked up the bloody dagger from the floor and then stood up to her full height. As she turned to leave, she saw the other Super Mutant, with the broken jaw, stirring. She stomped on its head as she passed. She didn’t have time for small fry.</p><p>-+-</p><p>She could hear the Super Mutant King as it ran up the stairs, the sound of its great feet stomping on each step, and then the creak of the blast damaged door as the creature forced its way out into the trenches. She took the stairs, three at a time, gaining more and more control of her new, powerful body every second that passed, gripping the long dagger tight in her undamaged hand.</p><p>Reaching the bunker door, she jinked to the side in anticipation of a surprise attack. The only surprise that awaited her was, however, the sight of the King, stood, leaning against its sword, tip down in the dirt floor of the trench. It appeared to be laughing.</p><p>She remained cautious, circling the King, surveying the surround trench and the tops, expecting other Super Mutants to appear and attack her. She saw nothing. Only the King and its sword.</p><p>“I knew you wouldn’t be far behind.” The King held one hand against its damaged eye and then, slow, dramatic, lowered the hand to reveal the wound healing. Knitting together. “Surprise! One of the benefits of our modified Forced Evolution Virus. Our healing is incredibly fast. Check your hand. You’ll see.”</p><p>Without removing the bandage Valrie had tied around her hand, she pushed the edge upwards and saw the two ragged sides of the injury almost reaching towards each other, knitting together, forming new skin, even as she watched. This new ability came as a welcome surprise for her, but made killing the King that more difficult. She hoped the healing wouldn’t stop her finding that final blow.</p><p>“We’ll see just how fast it is when I tear out your heart.” She knew the King had resorted to a stalling tactic. She presumed so that its eye could heal. She wasn’t about to let that happen.</p><p>She jumped forward, a testing thrust with the dagger, aiming at the King’s chest. With a sweep of its sword, the King swatted the dagger aside and followed up with a blow towards Patience’s neck. The King’s great strength meant the sword moved fast, but it was still awkward compared to the shorter dagger of Patience.</p><p>Closing the gap, she remained inside the reach of the sword, once again thrusting towards the King’s chest. The King matched her speed, grabbing her wrist with its free hand, twisting it to the side. Before it could bring its sword to bear, Patience tensed her enlarged neck muscles and head butted the King where the bridge of its nose should be. It may not have hurt it, but it fell back, stunned.</p><p>This took Patience out from within the reach of the sword, however, and the King launched the blade around in a blind arc, slicing a gash in Patience’s chest. She knew, now, that the wound would heal fast, but she couldn’t afford to allow the King too many hits. She had to take the sword out of the equation.</p><p>From the few moves the King made, Patience could tell that, although their brute strengths matched, she had far better skills. She needed to use that advantage. She stepped forward, faking a slash towards the King’s face. The King dodged, but, as Patience predicted, in a linear fashion, trying to slice its sword upwards as it moved back.</p><p>With a sweep of her leg, she circled to the outside of the swinging sword and jammed her dagger deep into the King’s shoulder, twisting it as she trust it in. That had the effect she needed. The King’s hand opened, a reflex action, and the sword dropped to the ground even as the King’s arm flopped, useless, against its side.</p><p>She didn’t count for the King’s enhanced speed and caught a blow to her face, bones cracking. She reeled away and the King followed, roaring like some ancient beast. Another punch slammed into her face and then another. She stumbled, bringing her hands up in a guard, deflecting the next couple of blows, but she couldn’t stop the King barrelling into her, taking them both down to the ground.</p><p>The King took the mounted position above her and began raining blows down upon her. Patience covered up, instinct and training guiding her. She took the blows, rocking them to the side when she could, glancing between her forearms, every so often, biding her time, letting the King wear itself out.</p><p>Something strange began to happen. Even when the King’s other arm healed enough to join in the punching, the blows hitting Patience didn’t have the same impact anymore. She didn’t believe the King had tired itself out, a Super Mutant’s body should give much greater endurance. No. This seemed different.</p><p>She took another glance. The King had become smaller, less well defined. It began to breathe more heavy. Taking advantage, Patience grabbed one of the King’s arms, tugging it across her body. She hooked a leg over the leg of the same side and pushed upwards with the opposing hip, twisting and forcing the King to roll to the side.</p><p>Now she had the top position. Her blows, however, were not weakening. She punched in a more tactical way than the King. A punch to the head, then one to the body. An elbow point dropped down, another as a swipe, trying to knock the King’s hands away. All the time, the King continued to shrink, grow smaller. Soon, he seemed smaller than even a normal Super Mutant.</p><p>Even the King could tell something was wrong. Its eyes grew wider, full of panic. It knew it was losing and then Patience caught an opening, sending a powerful strike through the gap in the King’s hands, landing on the creature’s nose and sending gouts of blood spattering down its chest. She grabbed its throat and punched it several more times, leaving the King’s face a bloody mess.</p><p>Pushing herself up, she stood above the dwindling form of the King, transforming before her very eyes.</p><p>“How?” The voice higher now, the King gurgled through the blood in its mouth. “It should have been the same virus as mine. They never made the retro-virus. They couldn’t. How?”</p><p>“I told everybody I was a weapon, but I wasn’t. I was a cure.” Patience looked at her bloodied hands and saw that she too now showed signs of her transformation reversing. “Not for every Super Mutant, though. Just for you. To erase a mistake. To stop a war.”</p><p>The King no longer looked like a Super Mutant. Still larger than a human, the King looked like a man. An old man.</p><p>“But we could have ruled the Wasteland. I can’t go back to what I was! I can’t!” The old man snuffled, wiping his bloody nose with the back of his hand. “Kill me! I’m better off dead. Please! You have to. Don’t make me live like this.”</p><p>“Shut the fuck up.” With the Super Mutant strength diminishing inside her, she hit the old man, the once and nevermore King, smashing her fist into his jaw, knocking him cold.</p><p>She felt tired, now. Again, she lifted her hands, noticing for the first time that she no longer had the Pip-Boy on her arm. Her expanding musculature must have torn it from her down in the bunker. She felt dizzy. Her stomach rolled and she bent over, retching, reaching out for the trench wall. She emptied the contents of her stomach against the wall and saw the blood mixed with the vomit.</p><p>The trench spun as she tried to look around, everything moving out of focus. Wondering if this was the price of saving the Wasteland.</p><p>Worth it, she thought as she collapsed to the trench floor.</p>
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<a name="section0028"><h2>28. Chapter 28</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>28</p><p>She bolted upright and reached for her sidearm. The ensuing crash from the drip stand didn’t help her confusion and not finding her sidearm at her hip caused her to look around in alarm. Before she knew it, several hands caught hold of her, trying to coax her to lie back down. She stared at the out-of-focus faces and tried to make sense of the dull sounds reaching her ears. She didn’t have the strength to resist as gentle hands pushed her down.</p><p>She blinked several times, trying to clear her vision, and swallowed, a feeling of razor blades tumbling down her throat. She heard the croak emerge from her throat and found a straw placed against her lips. By instinct, she sucked on the straw, drawing cool liquid into her mouth, feeling it cascade into her throat, soothing the sharpness.</p><p>“You’re okay.” A voice, becoming clear to her ears, seemed familiar. Comforting. “Slow the fuck down! Don’t drink so fucking fast.”</p><p>“I’ll put the drip back in. I’m good with drips.” Another voice, again familiar, sounded like it dipped down to the side and raised up again. The sound of metal scraping upon concrete. “Hey! No need to push! I’m just trying to help.”</p><p>Another pair of hands held her arm and she looked down, her vision beginning to clear, and saw the hands inserting the drip back into her arm. She didn’t resist. She felt like she should, but a hand brushing her forehead calmed her, making her feel safe. She looked towards the owner of the hand and recognised the older woman.</p><p>“Good to have you back.” Valrie smiled. That didn’t seem right. It seemed odd. Another hand waved in front of her face and she turned her head that way.</p><p>“We found you. Totally naked and totally bald.” Gia leaned on the bed by her elbows, resting her chin on her hands. “Your hair’s growing back, but, I don’t know, the bald look was kind of hot.”</p><p>“Gia! Give the woman a fucking chance to wake up! Jebus fucking Christ.” Valrie swatted a hand towards Gia and missed.</p><p>“How ... how long?” She reached for the water and the straw that Valrie still held. Her throat still felt cracked and brittle. She took another long sip of water.</p><p>“Only a couple of days. That, what do you call, ‘transformation’ really did a fucking number on you. Dried you out.” Valrie pointed at the drip bag hanging from the stand. “You’ve gone through a shit load of those things.”</p><p>“But, not to worry, your turning into a monster and back again hasn’t ruined that awesome rack. You’ve still got a rocking bod’.” Gia performed a “Chef’s kiss”. Patience doubted she even knew what the expression meant.</p><p>“I doubt, very fucking much, that that is the thing she’s most concerned about.” Scowling at Gia, Valrie clasped Patience’s hand. Patience tried to laugh, causing a coughing fit.</p><p>Now her head had cleared, she took a look around. The place looked somewhat familiar. Hers was one of several beds lined up against one wall and a man, dressed in Brotherhood of Steel fatigues stood at the end of another bed, checking notes on a clipboard. Then she remembered a few things.</p><p>“The King! He didn’t get away?” She tried to sit up again and her head swam once more.</p><p>“Nah. We caught that crazy old coot. We knew who he was, ‘cos he kept shouting ‘I’m the King!’ and ‘I’m going get my revenge’ and stuff.” Gia made a cute, pretend sneer as she pointed a thumb over her shoulder in a general direction. “Then he collapsed like you and I arrested him.</p><p>“He did not say anything about ‘revenge’. Why fucking lie?” Patience could tell her two friends were acting as normal. That made her feel better. Especially Gia, seeing someone else turn into a Super Mutant in front of her.</p><p>“But I did arrest him!”</p><p>“You tied him up while he was unconscious.”</p><p>“Same thing.”</p><p>“Guys!” Shouting hurt her throat, but her friends would have continued the snark filled argument forever if she allowed it. “So, how long before I can get out of here?”</p><p>Valrie shrugged her shoulders and pointed towards the Brotherhood medic. The medic looked over and shook his head. Patience didn’t know what that meant, only that, at least for the time being, she would be going nowhere. She noticed the other beds and their occupants. Some of their injuries looked serious.</p><p>“Don’t you dare!” Valrie caught hold of Patience’s chin and turned her to face her, scowling. “I know that look. You are not going to fucking blame yourself! You asked for help, they made a choice.”</p><p>Patience was about to say something, along the lines of ‘forcing them’, until she found herself interrupted by a whelp from Gia. The young ex-raider almost jumped on the spot, holding a finger up, as if telling them to wait. Patience didn’t have the heart to say she wasn’t going anywhere. Gia disappeared through the infirmary door and returned a few seconds later, carrying a sack and dumping it on the bed beside Patience’s legs.</p><p>“We saved your stuff! There’s your outfit, but that’s pretty fuc ... uh ... pretty much ruined.” Gia glanced at Valrie and then began digging inside the sack, pulling out the tattered remnants of her leather outfit, taken from the raider not that long ago. “There’s your belt and pouches. Your pistol, which I’m totally not going to steal. Honest. Uhm, oh yeah, your rifle, knife and this ...”</p><p>From inside the bag, Gia pulled out her Pip-Boy. The catch had broken as she transformed, her extra muscles pushing the lock apart. As Gia held it, the bottom half swung down on its hinges, revealing the network of wires and tubes that had penetrated her forearm. Patience turned her arm over and saw the scars where the wires and tubes had once been. The Super-Super Mutant virus had not healed that.</p><p>“That’s great. Thank you, Gia.” Patience pointed at the sack. “Maybe put it away and I’ll look through it all later?”</p><p>“Okay.” Gia dropped the Pip-Boy back into the sack, followed by the tatters of the leather outfit and then dropped the sack to the floor, kicking it under the bed.</p><p>“Say, where’s Vincent?” Patience pushed herself up in the bed and caught the look between her two friends. “What? He isn’t still being debriefed by that Knight Captain, is he?”</p><p>Patience could tell something was wrong. The look on Valrie’s face, for one. Valrie had few different expressions. Tearful sadness was not one of them. Patience looked towards Gia, but the girl turned her head away, avoiding her gaze. Then Valrie squeezed the hand she held and took a deep breath.</p><p>-+-</p><p>He had a room to himself. Patience stood by the doorway, leaning on the drip stand, and stared. They hadn’t removed the top half the armour and he looked strange, almost as if he was half sat up, but the bunch of pillows beneath his head told her that he wasn’t laid like that to relax. Half his face had bandages and dressings covering it, the other half looked battered and broken. Where he should have hands, she only saw stumps, enlarged by the dressings.</p><p>“You have five minutes.” The Knight Medic put his hand on her shoulder. “You should make your peace now, while he’s still conscious.”</p><p>Patience nodded without looking at the medic. She hesitated longer than she wanted to and then stepped towards the bed, pulling the drip stand with her. He didn’t move, at first, the one visible eye shifting in continuous movements, as if reading from a book. By accident, she scraped the drip stand on the floor and the eye stopped flickering and turned towards her. He smiled and grimaced at the same time.</p><p>“Hey. If it isn’t the Hero of the Mall. I’d get up, but, apparently the armour’s the only thing keeping my body together.” He grunted and Patience knew he was trying to laugh. “If they take it off, my internal organs’ll flop all over the floor and I’d have to clean it up, even if it killed me.”</p><p>“And you’d clean it up too. Gotta follow those orders.” Patience tried to smile, but only tears emerged. She covered her mouth with her hand. “And I heard it was you they call Hero of the Mall. Took out about forty Super-Mutants alone. I have some catching up to do.”</p><p>“That’s a dirty lie! It was never forty.” Vincent blinked. Patience knew it was a wink, however. “More like thirty, thirty-five. Tops.”</p><p>“Vincent. I ... I ...” She wanted to clasp his hand but, because of her, he no longer had one.</p><p>“Don’t you dare! Don’t you fucking dare come in here and start that shit!” Vincent glared at her, trying to turn his head and wincing. “I made my choice and I won’t have you take that from me. You didn’t do this. I did this! To be honest, you’re pep talks are shit anyway. They need work.”</p><p>Despite how she felt, Patience laughed. She gripped the bed sheets, staring down at her hands, no longer green or huge. The wound from ripping her hand from the knife not even a scar. She had got out of the battle with nothing. No injuries, no damage, only a bald head. And her hair appeared to be growing back at a fast pace.</p><p>“Thank you.” She wanted to stroke his forehead, to kiss it, but it looked raw and painful. “Without what you did, Valrie and Gia might be dead, or worse. I just want you to know, I’m sorry. I know we butted heads, a lot, but you ... you ...”</p><p>“Hey, Patience.” Vincent lifted the stump of his arm and placed it on her hand. “Do me a favour? Say goodbye. Not that ‘see you later’ bullshit people say when they don’t want admit someone is dying. I want a proper goodbye. A real one.”</p><p>“Okay.” She continued to stare at the bed sheets.</p><p>“Oh, and I want you to have my .45.” Patience glanced at a table beside the bed where Vincent’s pistol lay, still covered in his and the Super Mutants dried blood. “I know you prefer that pea shooter but, I don’t know, maybe you can find a use for it. Now, I’m feeling kinda tired, so, if you could fuck off, that would be great.”</p><p>“Okay.” She picked up Vincent’s pistol, testing the weight and the balance. “Goodbye, Vincent. I’m glad to have known you.”</p><p>“Goodbye, Patience.” Again Vincent tried to smile and she smiled back before he raised his remaining eye back upwards. The conversation over.</p><p>She turned, not looking back, and headed for the doorway where she found Three Dog leaning against the frame, hands in his pockets. He stepped aside as she left Vincent’s room and joined her as she walked back towards the infirmary. They said nothing for a while, but Three Dog broke the silence.</p><p>“So, what now, vault dweller? Are you going to disappear on us like the Lone Wanderer?” He glanced at her, a questioning eyebrow raised. “There are still a lot of people out there that need help. The Super Mutants may be scattered, but they won’t stay quiet for long and, word is that some feral ghouls have started wandering outside during daylight hours. Raiders are already making moves back into the Downtown Ruins. A lot of shit happening. We could sure use help from our Avenging Angel.”</p><p>“I have some things to do, but I’ll not be going anywhere once they’re done.” She drooped her head and then lifted it again, looking direct into Three Dog’s eyes. “How many died?”</p><p>“A lot.” He inclined his head, pursing his lips. “But a damned sight more were rescued. Thanks to you and Vincent and a whole bunch of others, there are over a hundred people alive today that would have died, or turned into Super Mutants. I’d say the scales tip in our favour.”</p><p>They reached the door of the infirmary and Patience hesitated. She hated that she thought it, but she didn’t want to be around her friends, right now. If she went back into that room, they would talk and fuss and argue between themselves and try to make her feel better.</p><p>She didn’t want to feel better. She wanted to feel every last bit of guilt that she felt twisting and turning in her mind. She wanted to think about Vincent and those other injured people in the infirmary and all the dead and injured out in the Ruins. All due to her stupid need to be the hero. Feeling better would be obscene.</p><p>Three Dog must have sensed her misgivings, placing his hand behind her back and leading her on, past the infirmary door. She could hear Valrie and Gia bickering over how tall she had been while transformed into the Super-Super Mutant. Patience hadn’t even begun to work through that nightmare.</p><p>“What’s going to happen to the King? Who was he? Originally, I mean.” She linked her arm into Three Dog’s as they walked, like a romantic couple on a stroll through the park. “He said he was like me, but he couldn’t have been. He was too old. You can’t make super soldiers out of geriatrics.”</p><p>“The Brotherhood think he was a scientist. The way he talks, the way his mind works. But he does seem to be a vault dweller, whether he is like you, I don’t know. Maybe the virus aged him. No-one knows.” They turned a corner, heading towards the canteen. “As to what they’ll do with him, I don’t know that either. The Brotherhood are soldiers, not the police. They don’t feel they have the authority to judge him, especially with everything that goes on in the Wasteland. Who does?”</p><p>“The people. The people have the authority, just like back in the World-That-Was.” She groaned as she lowered herself into a chair, finding it strange to breathe so heavy after so little effort. “I don’t know. Maybe after two hundred years, it’s about time civilisation made a comeback. Give the King a fair trial.</p><p>“Maybe it is time. How about some of that oily shit they call coffee?” She nodded and Three Dog moved over to the coffee machines against the wall.</p><p>Patience placed Vincent’s pistol on the table and stared at it. There were one or two things she had to do before she even thought about her future. And now, looking at that pistol, she had an idea what she could do with it. As soon as she felt well enough to enter the Wasteland once more.</p><p>-+-<br/>“You're listening to the adventures of me, Herbert "Daring" Dashwood, and my stalwart ghoul manservant, Argyle. Today's episode: Who’s On Third!</p><p>“Say, this is a sweet deal ya got here, Doc. I never seen so much sciencey equipment anywhere.”</p><p>“Oh, yes, my lab certainly is scien-terrific! Sorry about the joke. I don’t get many visitors. Not since I became ...”</p><p>“A ghoul? Yes, we did notice that. The rather, ahem, rotting nature of your skin gave that away.”</p><p>“Yes, my experiments in nukula physics caused my current status.”</p><p>“Nuclear! It’s nuclear!”</p><p>“Argyle! I’m sure the good doctor knows his own profession! So, is it due to your current state that you disappeared, leaving your delightful wife worried and alone?”</p><p>“Yes. I could never let her see me ... like this.”</p><p>“How could you think that would make any difference to how much I love you?”</p><p>“Hey, Boss! It’s the dame!”</p><p>“Ms Dérobé!”</p><p>“Norma Jean!”</p><p>“Yes, I followed you, Mr Dashwood. It was the only way that Alphonse would ever open the door to his lab. I’m sorry to have deceived you.”</p><p>“Not to worry, madam. People deceive me all the time.”</p><p>“I’ll say!”</p><p>“But, Norma Jean, I never wanted you to see me ... like this!”</p><p>“Not even if I look ... like this?”</p><p>“Why, Ms Dérobé! You’re a ghoul too!”</p><p>“Jeez! Dames really can cover anything with good make-up skills and an expensive wig!”</p><p>“Oh, Norma Jean! I made you ... like this! It’s all my fault! How can you ever forgive me?”</p><p>“Forgive you? Now we can be together forever! Thank you, Mr Dashwood, for bringing my husband and I back together. I can never repay you.”</p><p>“Money would work.”</p><p>“Hush, Argyle. I think we’ve just witnessed a genuine happy ending.”</p><p>“Yeah, if only all adventures could end that way.”</p><p>“If only, Old Chum. If only.”</p><p>“Be sure and tune in next time for another exciting adventure of me, Herbert “Daring” Dashwood and my stalwart ghoul manservant Argyle!”</p>
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